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BR  50  .E43  1901 
Eldridge,  Gardner  S 
Unto  heights  heroic 


Unto 
HeigKts  Heroic 

(A  Biblical  Interpretation) 
By 

V 

Gardner  S.  Eldridg'e 


New  YorKt   Eaton  CgL  Mains 
Cincinnati  I  Jenning;s  CSL  Pye 


CopNTig-ht  by 

Eaton  &  mains. 

1901. 


TO  THE  MEMORY  OF  MY 
SMOTHER 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Introduction 9 

Literature : 

The  Book  of  Books 23 

The  Book  of  the  Meeting 39 

The  Book  of  Life 57 

History  : 

The  Crossed  Hands 71 

The  Heart  of  the  Vision 85 

The  Kiss  of  Destiny 99 

Life  : 

The  Voices in 

The  Mission 123 

The  Hero 137 

The  Christ  : 

Literature 153 

History 165 

Life !.  177 


INTRODUCTION 


"Amid  all  the  mysteries  by  which  we  are  surrounded 
nothing  is  more  certain  than  that  we  are  ever  in  the 
presence  of  an  Infinite  and  Eternal  Energy  from  which 
all  things  proceed." — H.  Spencer. 

"As  a  matter  of  history,  the  existence  of  a  quasi- 
human  God  has  always  been  a  postulate." — John  Fiske. 

"He  seems  to  hear  a  heavenly  Friend 
And  through  thick  veils  to  apprehend 
A  labor  working  to  an  end." — Tennyson. 


INTRODUCTION 


Having  once  admitted  the  principles  of  the 
Reformation,  it  is  inevitable  that  the  Bible 
should  become  a  storm  center  of  controversy. 
For  individualism  is  in  its  essence  antagonistic 
to  uniformity.  It  is  impossible  tO'  inclose  any 
number  of  thinking  men  within  the  circle  of  one 
idea,  unless  they  abandon  their  thinking. 

"For  every  fiery  prophet  in  old  times, 

And  all  the  sacred  madness  of  the  bard, 

When  God  made  music  through  them,  could  but  speak 

His  music  by  the  framework  and  the  chord." 

Allowance  must  always  be  made  for  ''the 
framework  and  the  chord." 

But  this  very  difficulty  of  identical  thought 
and  expression  is  a  prime  factor  in  human 
progress.  For  the  value  of  controversy  is  not 
simply  the  victory  of  one  party  over  the  other. 
The  main  value  is  in  the  controversy  itself; 
through  it  the  vision  is  enlarged. 

The  psalmist  prayed,  ''Open  thou  mine  eyes, 
9 


Introduction 

that  I  may  behold  wondrous  things  out  of  thy 
law."  This  prayer  is  being  answered  through 
the  conflict  of  biblical  study.  The  eyes  of  man 
are  opening  wider  and  wider  upon  the  book  of 
God.  From  being  a  mere  storehouse  of  proof 
texts  open  only  to  the  theologian  for  dogma 
building,  it  is  rapidly  becoming  the  book  of 
God  open  to  the  heart  of  man  for  life  building. 

I  know  many  people  think  the  book  in  jeop- 
ardy— that  the  foundations  of  our  faith  are 
being  undermined.  Then  possibly  we  need  to 
lay  the  foundations  deeper.  We  ought  neither 
to  suspect  the  Bible  of  insecurity  in  itself,  nor 
the  critics  of  rendering  it  so,  unless  we  first 
make  sure  that  our  faith  is  resting  upon  the 
real  foundations  of  the  book. 

It  is  one  of  the  principles  of  life  that  we 
be  constantly  making  our  way  through  the 
transient  toward  the  permanent;  through  the 
relative  toward  the  absolute;  through  the 
guesses  of  man  toward  the  truth  of  God.  The 
same  principle  holds  in  the  study  of  the  Bible. 
A  revelation  in  its  essence  is  not  what  we  find, 
but  what  comes  to  us;  what  is  constantly  and 
increasingly  coming;  what  is  revealed,  and 
forever  being  revealed.  The  revelation,  then, 
is  always  larger  than  our  grasp  of  it. 

10 


Introduction 

Now,  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  revelation  of 
God  to  this  world — that  is,  the  revealing  of 
God's  life  to  the  world  through  the  Bible — is 
not  and  cannot  be  disturbed.  Only  grant  the 
existence  of  God,  a  being  from  whom  all  things 
proceed,  a  being  who  is  forever  expressing  him- 
self through  the  whole  universe,  and  this  won- 
derful book  will  easily  take  its  place  as  the 
noblest  expression  he  has  ever  made  of  himself. 

The  controversy,  as  a  rule,  does  not  deal  with 
revelation  in  this  larger  sense,  but  has  to  do 
with  the  material  through  which  it  comes.  It 
is  engaged  in  analyzing,  in  adjusting  and  read- 
justing, that  material.  It  deals  with  the  form 
rather  than  the  spirit. 

Forms  are  transient,  spirit  permanent.  We 
are  making  our  way  through  the  one  toward 
the  other.  The  constant  passing  of  forms  is 
the  pathos  of  progress.  Why,  then,  be  so  hasty 
in  charging  the  critics  with  having  stolen  away 
our  Master  because  the  familiar  form  has  dis- 
appeared? Lingering  at  the  empty  tomb  with 
John  a  larger  truth  may  dawn,  and  still  linger- 
ing with  the  loving  Mary  the  Master  himself 
may  speak. 

But  all  this  urging  in  upon  the  heart  of  the 
book  is  the  urgency  of  life  itself.     We  cannot 


Introduction 

rest  in  our  Scripture  searching,  for  somehow 
we  are  impelled  by  the  conviction  that  life  lies 
in  here.  As  Jesus  said  of  the  Jews,  ''Ye  search 
the  Scriptures,  for  in  them  ye  think  ye  have 
eternal  life." 

It  is  but  the  struggle  for  life,  eternal  life,  old 
as  our  humanity.  It  is  the  spirit  of  man  striv- 
ing into  the  presence  of  God :  'Tor  this  is  life 
eternal,  that  they  might  know  thee  the  only  true 
God."  There  may  be  much  vague  groping, 
and  many  a  wild  plunge  on  the  part  of  our 
thinking.  It  may  be  a  strange  Faust-like 
career,  yet  the  urging  thirst,  the  articulate 
cry,  is  that  of  the  Pilgrim,  "Life,  life,  eternal 
Hfe!" 

Every  time  we  have  come  more  closely  into 
the  presence  of  God  there  has  been  a  breaking 
up  of  many  time-honored  traditions.  It  was 
true  of  the  Reformation  in  reference  to  the 
Church.  Men  cried  out  against  the  seeming 
vandalism.  And  when  the  Church  emerged  it 
was  stripped  of  many  forms  that  had  been 
sacredly  cherished.  Yet  it  was  more  than  ever 
a  living  Church.  We  had  not  lost,  but  gained. 
All  was  in  the  interest  of  the  individual  ap- 
proach to  God;  of  a  deeper  experience;  of  a 
stronger  spiritual  life,  a  better  and  mightier 

12 


Introduction 

Church.  It  is  the  ever-recurring  struggle  of 
God  and  man  to  come  into  more  spiritual  re- 
lations. It  is  the  passion  of  communion — of 
that  fellowship  which  is  life  itself. 

But  the  question  may  be  honestly  raised  as 
to  whether  the  Bible  is  really  taking  on  the 
more  vital  forms — whether  it  be  coming  into 
shape  for  the  deeper  spiritual  nourishment  of 
the  soul  and  the  larger  influencing  of  the 
world;  whether  the  eager  spirit  of  man  is 
really  turning  biblical  interpretation  into 
the  more  available,  palatable,  and  spiritual 
food  of  life. 

The  chief  complaint  is  that  the  book  is 
being  humanized,  that  the  supernatural  is  being 
driven  into  the  background.  Well,  there  is  in 
this  universe  nothing  more  supernatural  than 
God,  and  next  to  him  nothing  more  supernat- 
ural than  man.  Carlyle  has  made  this  clear 
enough.  Now,  in  the  age-long  struggle  of  the 
imperfect  personality  of  man  to  rise  into  the 
perfect  personality  of  God  through  intercourse 
and  communion,  who  shall  say  that  in  the  pres- 
ence of  these  personal  forces  there  shall  not  be 
experiences  and  events  that  shall  transcend  the 
natural  order? 

But  in  common  with  all  other  phenomena 
13 


Introduction 

these  experiences  and  events  are  a  legitimate 
subject  for  critical  study.  Suppose,  then,  that 
some  things  we  once  thought  supernatural  are 
now  shown  in  the  larger  vision  to  be  natural, 
is  God  any  the  less  the  author  ?  Does  it  prove 
that  God  is  no  longer  the  author  of  an  event 
simply  because  we  have  an  inkling  of  how  it 
came  to  pass  ?  There  is  a  natural  supernatural- 
ism  in  which  "we  live,  move,  and  have  our 
being."  The  more  we  cherish  it  the  nobler 
must  life  become,  God  in  our  life  becoming  the 
rule,  and  not  the  exception. 

Or  suppose  the  scientific  investigator,  with 
the  mania  of  explaining  things  upon  him,  carry 
the  process  too  far,  as  he  certainly  does  some- 
times. Suppose  he  leave  no  room  for  an  un- 
known quantity,  how  long  can  he  maintain  such 
a  position?  He  can  no  more  analyze  and  ex- 
plain the  life  of  Moses  without  the  presence  of 
an  Infinite  and  Eternal  Person  from  whom 
that  life  proceeds  than  Herbert  Spencer  can 
analyze  and  explain  the  universe  without  the 
presence  of  his  ''Infinite  and  Eternal  Energy 
from  which  all  things  proceed." 

But  if  the  book  is  becoming  more  human  is 
it  therefore  becoming  less  divine?  There  is 
nothing  in  the  world  so  much  like  God  as  our 
14 


Introduction 

humanity.  This  the  Bible  itself  teaches.  There- 
fore, the  more  human  the  book  the  more  per- 
fectly will  it  reveal  God. 

Now,  what  is  really  taking  place  in  the  pres- 
ent-day interpretation  of  the  Bible  ?  If  we  take 
up  the  books  that  are  rapidly  coming  to  hand, 
the  books  that  are  to  help  us  into  the  deeper 
meaning  of  God's  life  in  the  Bible,  what  do  we 
find  ?  Such  books  as  these :  The  Life  and  Liter- 
ature of  the  Hehrezv  People,  History  and  Gov- 
ernment, Ethics  and  Religion,  The  Social  Life, 
The  Epic  of  the  Inner  Life,  Literature  of  the 
Old  Testament,  The  Messages  of  the  Prophets, 
Literary  Study  of  the  Bible. 

These  are  the  commentaries  of  to-day.  And 
what  is  their  significance?  Just  this,  that  in 
place  of,  or  in  addition  to,  the  former  textual 
interpretation  in  the  light  of  our  theology,  we 
have  historical,  ethical,  social,  religious,  poetic, 
and  literary  interpretation,  in  the  light  of  the 
whole  dramatic  sweep  of  human  existence. 
And  this  is  equivalent  to  saying  that  it  is  in  the 
light  of  that  Spirit  of  God  who  is  the  Master 
of  the  world's  progress. 

Is  not  this  a  gain  ?  Is  it  not  getting  beyond 
the  cramped  letter  into  the  presence  of  the 
thing  itself?    Is  not  this  passing  between  the 


Introduction 

lines  into  the  very  atmosphere  of  that  divine- 
human  communion  of  which  the  Bible  is  a 
faithful  record?  Is  not  this  getting  hold  of 
that  communion  at  its  vital  centers,  at  those 
points  at  v^hich  its  principles  must  radiate  into 
the  multitudinous  interests  of  man  ?  Suppose, 
instead  of  an  oracle  from  the  lips  of  David 
that  gives  us  a  world  of  trouble,  we  pass  be- 
yond the  letter  into  the  relation  that  exists 
between  God  and  the  man,  how  much  broader, 
deeper,  surer  a  standpoint  from  which  to  inter- 
pret the  truth  at  issue. 

In  our  interpretations,  then,  we  are  coming 
into  the  universal  language  of  the  soul,  that 
utters  itself  in  relations  rather  than  words. 
And  so  we  are  gaining,  in  the  place  of  a  dead, 
a  living  language.  Books  once  sealed  to  us  are 
being  unlocked  and  their  present-day  value 
realized. 

The  time  has  come  indeed  for  passing  on 
from  the  questions  of  "higher  criticism"  into  a 
realm  yet  higher,  that  may  be  characterized  as 
''higher  appreciation" — the  legitimate  sequence 
of  all  criticism.  We  wait  the  genius  to-day. 
We  wait  the  creative  masters — the  man  who 
can  make  the  lofty  figures,  the  mighty  events, 
live  again  with  a  glory  born  of  the  increasing 
i6 


Introduction 

light,  and  the  genius  of  the  man,  such  as  no 
former  interpretation  has  achieved. 

But  the  "higher  appreciation"  of  what,  of 
whom  ?  Why,  of  God !  Is  not  this  the  whole 
meaning  of  life,  to  appreciate  God  ?  Is  not  this 
worship,  praise,  and  service? — to  appreciate 
God,  to  enter  more  and  more  into  the  signifi- 
cance of  his  life,  deeper  and  deeper  into  its 
meaning. 

And  this  must  come  through  a  revelation; 
through  those  things  wherein  he  expresses  him- 
self; through  the  testimony  of  ''that  which  ap- 
pears." We  are  thankful  to  Herbert  Spencer 
that  he  finds  in  nature  a  testimony  to  the  'In- 
finite and  Eternal  Energy."  For  energy  has 
its  place  in  the  life  of  man.  We  are  still  more 
thankful  to  John  Fiske  that  he  finds  in  history 
a  testimony  to  a  "Quasi-Human  God."  For 
we  have  a  yet  deeper  need  for  such  a  God. 

But  we  await  a  better  testimony.  All  nature 
and  all  history  taken  together  does  not  consti- 
tute a  Bible.  We  need  a  revelation  that  will 
bring  God  into  life  in  some  creative  way.  For 
the  infinite  need  of  man  is  not  simply  life,  but  a 
"new  life;"  not  something  built  or  evolved  from 
the  past,  but  from  the  future.  For  we  are  made 
for  progress ;  and  not  only  for  progress,  but  we 
(2)  n 


Introduction 

have  laid  upon  us  the  strange  heroic  task  of 
passing  from  one  world  into  another — not  at 
death,  but  now  and  here:  from  a  world  of 
necessity  into  a  world  of  freedom;  from  a  nat- 
ural world  into  a  world  of  grace — grace  of  God 
and  grace  of  man;  from  a  world  of  things  and 
laws  into  a  world  of  personalities  and  relations. 
There  is  not  only  a  "struggle  for  life"  and  a 
"struggle  for  the  life  of  others,"  but  there  is  a 
"struggle  for  the  new  life,"  and  a  "struggle  for 
the  nezii  life  of  others."  All  the  meaning  of 
human  progress  is  involved  in  the  last  two 
struggles.  Man  has  laid  upon  him  the  super- 
human task  of  making  himself,  of  finding  the 
larger,  diviner  meaning  of  the  soul  through 
some  "Divine  Hero"  of  our  moral  and  spiritual 
nature.  And  such  a  Hero  the  Bible  reveals.  In 
the  prophecy  of  Isaiah  the  name  "Hero-God"  is 
employed.  But  more  important  than  the  name 
is  the  fact  itself  throughout  the  Bible. 

Everywhere  throughout  this  divine-human 
drama  God  appears  as  the  Hero-God.  Every- 
where men  and  events,  history,  literature,  and 
life,  rise  into  heroic  proportions  only  in  his 
presence.  What  a  book,  then,  for  life ! — for  the 
life  of  to-day,  when  the  crying  need  of  the  hour 
is  the  strong,  heroic  life;  when  w^e  are  in  such 
i8 


Introduction 

danger  of  becoming  victims  of  facility  and  lux- 
ury; when  the  heroic  task  is  laid  upon  us  of 
mastering  the  old  world,  that  has  grown  into 
infinite  proportions  through  the  same  Hero- 
God  who  has  proven  himself  master  of  Litera- 
ture, History,  and  Life  throughout  the  age-long 
witnessing  of  the  Bible. 

The  attempt,  then,  that  follows  in  these  pages 
is  to  sketch  in  a  brief,  and  I  fear  crude,  manner 
the  biblical  philosophy  of  Literature,  History, 
and  Life — how  all  are  evolved  through  the 
Hero-God;  how  through  this  literature  he 
leads  toward  the  higher  vent  of  life;  how  life  it- 
self is  evolved  through  the  meeting  of  the  Hero, 
and  redeemed  through  the  companionship  of 
his  revelation;  how  history  finds  its  progressive 
principle  in  him ;  how  the  world  moves  forward 
through  the  personal  unfoldment  of  man 
through  the  personal  Hero;  and  how,  in  its  last 
analysis,  the  whole  destiny  of  man  hinges  upon 
the  individual  relation  of  man  to  the  Hero. 
Thus  coming  to  the  individual  life,  how  that 
life  makes  its  way  through  the  voices  to  an  ex- 
perience with  the  personal  Hero,  finds  its  mis- 
sion in  his  presence,  and  finally  achieves  it 
through  the  dynamics  of  God — the  divine 
Hero  in  his  redeeming  passion;  and  how  Jesus 
19 


Introduction 

of  Nazareth  proved  himself,  and  unto  this  day 
is  proving  himself,  master  of  Literature,  His- 
tory, and  Life. 

If  this  outline  be  true  we  have  another 
glimpse  into  the  noble  vitality  of  the  Bible;  into 
its  far-reaching  purpose  and  power;  into  its 
unique  and  unrivaled  place  in  the  life  of  man. 
Yes,  another  glimpse  into  that  great  fact,  that 
this  ancient  book  has  alone  kept  pace  with  the 
progress  of  man;  has  never  been  thrown  off 
the  scent;  that  it  has  ever  held,  and  still  holds, 
the  secret  of  human  development. 

I  am  conscious  of  having  touched  with  un- 
skilled hands  themes  that  far  transcend  my 
powers. 

"For  more's  felt  than  is  perceived, 
And  more's  perceived  than  can  be  interpreted, 
And  Love  strikes  higher  with  his  lambent  flame 
Than  Art  can  pile  the  fagots." 

20 


LITERATURE 
The  BooK  of  BooKs 


"No  skeptic  he  who  bold  essays 
T'  unravel  all  the  mystic  maze 
Of  the  Creator's  mighty  plan — 
A  task  beyond  the  powers  of  man, 
Who,  when  his  reason  fails  to  soar 
High  as  his  will,  believes  no  more — 
No! — calmly  through  the  world  he  steals, 
Nor  seeks  to  trace  what  God  conceals, 
Content  with  what  that  God  reveals." 

— Tennyson. 


I  press  God's  lamp 


i  press  <joa  s  lamp 
Close  to  my  breast— its  splendor,  soon  or  late, 
Will  pierce  the  gloom."— Br ozvning. 


THE  BOOK  OF  BOOKS 

"  The  words  of  the  wise  are  as  goads,  and  as  nails  fastened  by  the  mas- 
ters of  assemblies,  which  are  given  from  one  shepherd.  And  further,  by 
these,  my  son,  be  admonished:  of  making  many  boohs  there  is  no  end."— 
Eccles.  xii,  ii,  12. 

The  author  of  Ecclesiastes  discusses  the 
problem  of  Hfe,  and  closes  the  discussion  by 
warning  us  against  the  attempt  to  solve  the 
problem  by  a  book.  ''Of  making  many  books 
there  is  no  end."  The  last  book  can  never  be 
written,  the  last  word  never  uttered. 

It  is  said  that  Victor  Hugo  used  to  walk  by 
the  seashore  and  throw  off  poetry  from  his 
rugged  soul  in  response  to  old  Ocean's  mysteri- 
ous call.  Man  is  ever  walking  by  the  shore  of 
an  infinite  sea,  from  whose  depths  voices  are 
calling,  and  the  response  is  book  on  book.  "Of 
making  many  books  there  is  no  end."  Of 
course  all  books  are  not  the  product  of  infinite 
mystery,  but  all  great  books  are.  They  seem 
like  a  fruitless  labor,  a  vain  attempt  to  do  the 
impossible.  But  in  reality  they  have  a  divine 
mission,  and  our  author  presents  that  mission 
in  a  most  striking  and  picturesque  form.  "The 
words  of  the  wise  are  as  goads,"  with  which 
you  spur  the  flock  forward.  And  "they  are  like 
23 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

nails" — or  spikes — with  which  you  pitch  your 
tent  from  night  to  night.  Both  are  given  by  the 
same  shepherd. 

We  have  here  a  picture  of  life's  progress — a 
flock  spurred  on  by  goads,  while  each  day's  ad- 
vance is  held  by  driving  stakes  and  pitching 
tents.  It  is  a  picture  of  the  two  great  princi- 
ples of  life,  the  progressive  goad  and  the  con- 
servative stake,  the  goad  of  progress,  the  spirit 
of  adventure,  the  promise  of  life. 

"By  a  mighty  impulse  driven, 
By  a  voice  of  mystic  strength, 

*Go,'  it  cries;  'to  thee  is  given 
Happiness  to  find  at  length.'  " 

Then  there  is  the  conservative  stake,  the 
stake  driven  by  our  fathers.  Around  it  cluster 
holy  associations,  dreams  of  the  night,  toils  of 
the  day,  visions  of  God.  It  is  sometimes  very 
hard  to  strike  those  sacred  tents. 

Some  books  are  '^goads,"  and  some  are 
''stakes;"  great  books  are  both  goads  and 
stakes,  given  by  the  same  shepherd.  They 
revere  the  past  while  making  for  the  future. 
'They  come  not  to  destroy,  but  to  fulfill." 

The  book  of  Ecclesiastes  has  served  diverse 
ends.  One  man,  missing  entirely  its  literary 
genius,  culls  from  it  a  lot  of  sparkling  texts  and 
24 


The  Book  of  Books 

out  of  them  builds  strange  systems  of  the- 
ology. Another  one,  equally  blind  to  its  liter- 
ary form,  characterizes  it  as  the  pessimistic 
wailings  of  a  disappointed  voluptuary.  As  well 
treat  Tennyson's  'Tn  Memoriam"  in  a  similar 
fashion  by  making  it  the  basis  of  theology,  or 
casting  it  aside  as  the  wailings  of  disappoint- 
ment. Indeed,  we  shall  best  grasp  the  signifi- 
cance of  Ecclesiastes,  perhaps,  in  the  light  of 
this  modern  poem. 

In  the  English  poem  we  have  a  great  sorrow- 
riven  soul,  keenly  sensitive  to  the  thought  of 
his  age,  its  problems  and  perplexities,  its  ques- 
tions, its  misgivings,  its  hopes  and  fears. 
At  times  it  sinks  almost  to  the  minor  key  of 
faith,  then  rises  grandly  to  the  major,  and 
finally  emerges  in  sight  of  the  ''far-off  divine 
event."  In  the  Hebrew  poem  we  have  also  a 
great  soul,  equally  sensitive  to  the  thought  of 
his  age,  to  all  its  puzzling  questions,  its  fasci- 
nating theories  of  life,  its  allurements  and  am- 
bitions, its  aims  and  philosophies.  At  times  he 
is  almost  engulfed  by  them,  but  finally  emerges 
in  sight  of  the  whole  "duty  of  man" — the 
supreme  goal. 

The  book  sparkles  with  philosophy,  poetry, 
and  maxims,  but  its  great  value  is  not  in  these. 
25 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

It  is  in  its  unseen  goal,  its  ideal.  And  its  power 
is  in  its  movement,  its  trend  toward  that  goal. 
This  is  the  great  value  of  books — not  what  they 
say,  but  what  they  suggest,  where  they  lead. 
A  book  is  a  fragment  struggling  for  completion. 
And  that  "struggle"  coupled  with  the  character 
of  the  goal  is  its  pith  and  power. 

Our  author  seeks  life  in  the  world.  That 
world  appears  to  him  in  three  forms :  pleasure, 
wisdom,  and  affairs — to  feel,  to  know,  to  pos- 
sess. He  rings  the  changes  on  these  three  forms 
of  life.  He  seeks  life  as  a  votary  of  pleasure. 
He  plucks  the  nearest,  then  the  next,  and  the 
next  as  an  ox  crops  grass  across  a  field  w4th  no 
thought  of  what  he  is  or  where  he  is  going. 
The  venture  is  a  failure — ''all  is  vanity." 

Then  he  seeks  life  as  a  votary  of  knowledge. 
He  adds  fact  to  fact  according  to  certain  mod- 
ern methods.  But  when  he  sums  up  his  facts 
he  gets  no  kind  of  livable  world.  The  result  is 
chaos,  not  cosmos.  Something  more  than  mere 
addition  enters  into  the  making  of  a  world  for 
man  to  live  in. 

Finally  he  seeks  life  as  a  votary  of  affairs, 

and  adds  thing  to  thing,  house  to  house.    He  is 

a  man  with  a  hoe,  a  very  large  hoe — the  other 

man    with    a    hoe    whose    brow    grows    not 

26 


The  Book  of  Books 

more  ''slanting,"  but  whose  heart  grows  more 
pinched  and  bedwarfed.  And  again  this  life- 
seeker's  refrain  is,  ''Vanity  of  vanities." 

Now  suppose  the  quest  end  here.  Suppose 
this  complete  the  book.  The  result  is  not  life 
but  vanity,  simply  because  an  attempt  has  been 
made  to  crowd  the  whole  into  a  part;  all  of  life 
into  one  phase ;  man  into  an  idea ;  the  boundless 
into  boundaries.  Houses  have  been  built  with 
great  pains  and  toil  and  care,  one  of  pleasure, 
another  of  business,  and  another  of  knowledge, 
and,  behold,  not  one  of  them  is  big  enough  to 
hold  the  man  who  built  it.  "Surely  this  is 
vanity."  This  is  the  folly  of  the  purely  realistic 
book,  the  book  that  attempts  to  give  us  life  by 
marking  its  boundaries. 

Life,  they  say,  is  made  of  facts,  things,  feel- 
ings, etc.  Now  let  the  artistic  spirit  move  upon 
them,  and,  behold,  we  have  a  book;  yes,  a  book 
disclosing  the  artistic  glory  of  its  maker,  but 
in  it  no  room  for  the  maker  himself.  His  own 
soul,  unless  dead,  will  beat  against  its  bound- 
aries; will  see  the  day  when  its  very  artistic 
beauty  will  pall  upon  the  heart  that  is  crying 
out  for  life.  It  simply  does  not  give  the  higher 
vent  to  life.  This  is  its  folly.  For  real  life  is 
just  this,  that  it  is  forever  and  forever  seeking 
27 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

the  higher  vent,  the  open  road  of  God,  the  hill 
country  of  the  soul.  And  all  the  facts  and  feel- 
ings and  things  must  marshal  around  and  lend 
themselves  to  this  sublime  journey.  Indeed, 
their  very  life,  their  power,  their  glory  is  born 
of  the  soul's  touch  upon  them  as  she  passes  on 
her  way. 

Did  you  never  feel  the  stifling  narrowness 
of  the  realistic  book?  All  lines  are  boundaries, 
things  are  things,  words  are  words  and  ^'noth- 
ing  more;"  no  windows,  no  glimpses  beyond. 
The  darkness  brings  out  no  distant  stars,  the 
day  awakes  no  great  soulful  songs.  There's 
nothing  to  lose,  nothing  to  gain,  no  hazard  of 
great  destinies — dry,  dull,  dead.  Sometimes 
the  dullness  is  relieved  by  the  backward  plunge 
into  our  animal  nature  through  the  lower  vent 
of  life — the  senses,  passions,  and  vices  of  the 
soul.  This  is  simply  the  way  of  death.  For  if 
the  bugle  call  of  the  soul  be  ''forward" — and 
who  will  doubt  it? — then  ''backward,  back- 
ward," must  ever  be  the  death  knell. 

But  the  book  is  not  complete  at  this  point. 
The  author,  though  realistic,  does  not  belong 
to  the  school  of  realism.  In  his  search  he  has 
discovered  himself.  In  looking  for  an  outer 
world    he    stumbles    upon    an    inner    world. 


The  Book  of  Books 

Listen !  *1  have  considered  the  task  which  God 
hath  given  to  the  sons  of  men,  to  exercise  them- 
selves withal.  He  hath  made  everything  beau- 
tiful in  its  season.  He  hath  also  put  the  zijorld 
into  their  heart;  only  they  understand  not  the 
work  of  God  from  beginning  to  end.'' 

God  hath  made  everything  beautiful  in  its 
season,  and  we  have  considered  man's  task  in 
seeking  out  that  beautiful  in  the  outer  world. 
But  now  we  come  upon  the  strange  and  dis- 
turbing fact  that  there  is  an  inner  w^orld,  a 
heart-world,  only  we  cannot  understand  it. 
This  heart-world  is  a  mystery  waiting  to  be 
revealed. 

All  through  the  book  there  are  gleams  and 
flashes  and  disturbing  monitions  of  this  heart- 
world  mingling  with  the  outer  world  of  pleas- 
ure, affairs,  and  know^ledge.  Yet  our  author 
does  not  project  the  heart-world  as  a  work  of 
the  imagination.  Had  he  done  so  he  would 
have  given  us  a  romance,  "a  vision  from  his 
own  heart  and  not  out  of  the  mouth  of  the 
Lord."  For  romance  is  but  the  ideal  projection 
of  the  heart-world.  From  the  realistic  shores 
of  sin  and  sorrow  and  toil  we  sail  in  the  good 
ship  Imagination  for  our  Arcady,  for  the  land 
where  everything  comes  out  right;  where  the 
29 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

wicked  finally  cease  from  troubling.  We  shall 
always  love  the  romance,  sweet  refuge  of  weary 
hours.  It  has  its  blessed  ministry,  but  life  itself 
does  not  lie  in  that  direction.  What  indeed  are 
the  great  human  dreams  of  immortality  but  ,the 
projection  over  and  over  again  of  this  heart- 
world. 

But  our  author  takes  still  another  course. 
The  heart-world  is  not  to  be  projected,  but 
awaits  its  own  unfolding.  The  book  like  a 
mountain  torrent  rushes  on.  Like  a  man  fight- 
ing his  way  through  the  tangled  underbrush,  it 
pushes  for  the  open  glade.  And  the  light  of 
the  opening  glade  comes  first  in  snatches 
through  the  foliage,  growing  at  last  into  un- 
broken light  in  those  memorable  words,  'This 
is  the  end  of  the  matter;  all  hath  been  heard: 
fear  God,  and  keep  his  commandments;  for  this 
is  the  whole  duty  of  man." 

And  this  is  no  mere  escape,  no  making  the 
best  of  a  bad  case,  but  the  aim  from  the  begin- 
ning, the  goal  enhanced  and  glorified  by  the 
method  and  way  of  approach. 

One  thing  stands  out  above  all  others,  and 

that  is  the  unabashed  strength  of  the  author's 

heart.    The  heart-world  may  be  a  mystery,  yet 

a  mystery  he  will  never  surrender.    Uncrushed 

30 


The  Book  of  Books 

by  the  defeats  of  this  world,  unallured  by  the 
dreams  of  another,  he  holds  right  on  in  the 
strength  of  his  soul.  And  the  goal  is  not  a 
book,  but  a  Being.  There  is  no  final  book,  but 
there  is  a  final  Being.  "Fear  God,  and  keep  his 
comandments."  This  is  the  "whole  duty." 
Nay,  literally  read,  "the  whole  of  man,"  the 
whole  story  of  man.  "Rejoice,  O  young  man, 
in  thy  youth" — throw  open  the  gates  of  thy 
being,  give  vent  to  thy  nature.  Let  all  that  is 
in  thee  rise  to  its  utmost.  Make  the  most  of 
thy  soul  forces,  of  brain  and  eye,  of  heart  and 
hand.  "But  know  that  God  will  bring  thee  into 
judgment."  All  must  be  marshaled  under  the 
divine  scrutiny;  held  to  the  divine  criticism; 
shaped  by  the  divine  thought  and  judgment. 
For  this  and  this  alone  is  the  w^iole  of  man. 
Only  this  comprehends  the  whole  story  of  man. 
This  gives  the  higher  vent  of  life^ — the  open 
road  of  the  soul. 

According,  then,  to  our  author  life  is  no  mad 
plunge  into  this  world,  no  mere  dream  of  an- 
other, but  an  heroic  unfolding  of  what  is  in  us, 
the  evolving  of  the  heart-world  through  God. 

And  this  is  the  thought  of  the  Bible  itself. 
In  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  we  have  a  long 
line  of  heroes.  If  we  go  back  to  their  history 
31 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

the  secret  of  their  heroism  is  out.  They  met 
God,  this  one  at  the  bush,  that  one  by  the  brook, 
and  this  again  under  the  oak.  And  it  was  the 
Hero-God.  Wherever  or  whenever  he  appeared 
it  was  as  the  Hero  of  Hfe,  the  inner  life,  the 
heart-world.  Around  this  meeting  has  grown 
the  Bible.  It  is  realistic  but  not  realism.  No 
nature-God  is  ever  made  the  hero.  No  litera- 
ture grew  about  the  molten  calf.  It  is  idealistic 
but  not  idealism.  It  never  swings  off  into 
romance;  never  seeks  the  dream-world.  That 
tendency  drifts  of  its  own  accord  into  the 
pageantry  of  the  Apocrypha.  It  is  the  book 
of  the  heart-world  evolving  through  the  divine 
Hero.  It  is  not  a  dream-world  of  the  imagina- 
tion, but  the  real  world  of  revelation,  the  heart- 
world,  unfolding  in  the  midst  of  the  great 
world,  weaving  into  its  wonderful  story  hints 
of  nature,  intuitions  of  the  soul,  and  dreams  of 
the  world,  shaping  them  all  to  the  higher  end — 
unfolding  and  unfolding  till  finally  from  the 
matchless  heart  fell  the  matchless  words,  *'Let 
not  your  heart  be  troubled.  In  my  Father's 
house  are  many  mansions:  I  go  to  prepare  a 
place  for  you." 

Life,  then,  is  not  an  enfolding  of  the  outer 
world  in  terms  of  pleasure,  knowledge,  or  pos- 
32 


The  Book  of  Books 

sessions,  but  the  unfolding  of  the  heart-world 
in  terms  of  faith,  hope,  and  love.  It  is  the  mas- 
tery of  the  outer  through  the  inner.  Is  not  this 
the  best  word  of  modern  philosoph}^?  Life  is 
not  an  impression,  but  an  expression.  It  is 
something  to  be  given,  not  gotten.  There's  a 
world  to  be  made,  not  found.  The  sooner  we 
grasp  this  thought  the  better.  We  are  not 
paupers  begging  our  way  through  the  world, 
whining  when  stones  are  given  for  bread  and 
serpents  for  fish.  We  are  princes  strewing  our 
pathway  with  the  largess  of  the  soul.  It  is  this 
heroic  role  through  the  Hero-God  that  leaves 
all  such  ancient  legends  as  ''vanity  of  vanities" 
far  behind. 

It  was  at  this  very  point  that  life  took  on  a 
new  meaning  to  the  author;  that  turned  the 
world  from  "vanity"  into  substance.  ''Cast  thy 
bread  upon  the  waters."  Do  you  want  a  better 
world  to  live  in?  Make  it  better.  Cast  forth 
what  is  in  you,  and  the  whole  earth  and  sea  and 
sky  shall  change  its  hue. 

"Sow  thy  seed  in  the  morning, 

And  slack  not  thy  hand  in  the  evening. 

And  the  light  shall  be  sweet  to  thee." 

Sow,  sow  thyself.    And  what  goes  forth  as  seed 
(3)  33 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

and  toil  will  return  in  a  larger,  sweeter  light; 
will  bless  thy  last  hours  with  a  glorious  sunset. 

"When  the  clouds  are  full  of  rain 
They  empty  it  upon  the  earth." 

This  is  the  divine  order :  when  things  are  full 
they  overflow  and  create  a  new  wealth  along 
their  path — trees  and  grass  and  flowers.  Pour 
out  what  is  in  thee  and  see  if  the  flowers  will 
not  spring  up  all  about  thee  with  their  fra- 
grance and  beauty.  The  great  world  must 
come  to  its  best  through  the  heart-world. 
Think  of  the  infinite  resources  of  this  heart- 
world  from  imagination  to  hope,  from  fancy  to 
faith,  from  logic  to  love.  The  world  is  not 
dying  for  the  cattle  on  a  thousand  hills,  nor  for 
the  mountain-locked  gold,  but  for  the  divine 
wealth  of  the  soul. 

How  apt,  therefore,  is  the  exhortation  of  our 
author,  followed  by  that  strange  but  beautiful 
death-song  of  this  very  heart-world :  ''Remem- 
ber now  thy  Creator  in  the  days  of  thy  youth" 
— while  this  inner  world  is  at  flood-tide  of 
youthful  powers,  when  under  the  brooding  of 
the  divine  Hero  they  shall  rise  to  their  noblest; 
''Before  the  sun  groweth  dark;"  before  the 
spring-tide  of  joy  be  gone,  and  the  exuberance 
34 


The  Book  of  Books 

of  life  be  lost;  before  '^the  windows  be  dark- 
ened, and  the  doors  shall  be  shut  on  the 
streets;"  before  the  world  is  too  much  for  our 
craven  hearts,  and  we  would  shut  out  all  sights 
and  sounds  of  the  noisy  world-street;  before 
"the  daughters  of  music  be  brought  low;"  be- 
fore the  strong  swinging  lyric  of  the  soul  loses 
its  power  to  redeem  men;  before  "the  silver 
cord  be  loosed" — nerve  gone,  courage  flabby, 
the  cords  of  life  too  slack  to  speed  the  arrow  of 
effort;  before  "the  pitcher  be  broken,"  and  we 
can  no  longer  turn  and  dip  life  from  the  pure 
fountains  of  God;  before  the  heart- world  has 
fallen  into  decay,  its  powers  gone,  its  forces 
vanished,  its  future  lost — nothing  to  evolve, 
nothing  to  give,  nothing  to  put  into  the  great 
world  with  living,  creative  force. 
35 


LITERATURE 
THe  BooK  of  tKe  Meeting 


"The  cygnet  finds  the  water ;  but  the  man 
Is  born  in  ignorance  of  his  element, 
And  feels  out  blind  at  first,  disorganized 
By  sin  i'  the  blood — his  spirit  insight  dulled 
And  crossed  by  his  sensations.     Presently 
He  feels  it  quicken  in  the  dark  sometimes : 
When  mark  be  reverent,  be  obedient — 
For  such  dumb  motions  of  imperfect  life 
Are  oracles  of  vital  Deity." 

— Mrs.  Browning. 

"How  dared  I  let  expand  the  force 
Within  me,  till  some  out-soul  whose  resource 
It  grew  for  should  direct  it?    Every  law 
Of  life,  its  every  fitness,  every  flaw, 
Must  One  determine  whose  corporeal  shape 
Would  be  no  other  than  the  prime  escape 
And  revelation  to  me  of  a  Will 
Orblike  o'ershrouded  and  inscrutable 
Above,  save  at  the  point  which,  I  should  know, 
Shone  that  myself,  my  powers,  might  overflow." 

— Browning. 


THE  BOOK  OF  THE  MEETING 

"And  he  read  in  their  ears  all  the  words  of  the  book  of  the  covenant 
which  was  found  in  the  house  of  the  Lord." — 2  Kings  xxiii,  2. 

One  of  the  first  thoughts  of  Hfe  is  that  we 
have  fallen  heir  to  the  universe.  The  blue  sky 
and  velvet  turf;  the  daisied  fields  and  mysteri- 
ous mountains;  the  song  of  the  brook  and  the 
laughter  of  children ;  the  quiet  of  the  home  and 
the  hum  of  the  market,  all  wait  on  us  with  their 
ministries.  We  are  heirs  of  all  there  is.  But 
another  thought  follows  hard  upon  this,  that 
the  value  of  the  great  world's  ministry  is  all 
dependent  upon  the  character  of  the  inner 
world,  the  heart-world.  In  vain  will  the  dis- 
tant star  beckon  to  the  holden  eyes.  In  vain 
will  nature's  harmonies  fall  upon  the  discordant 
soul.  And  in  vain  will  heroic  destinies  appeal 
to  the  sordid  heart.  They  are  indeed  minister- 
ing spirits  sent  forth  to  minister,  but  only 
to  those  who  are  heirs,  real  heirs,  ''heirs  of 
salvation." 

The  real  burden  of  life,  then,  is  not  in  the 

great  world  about  us,  but  in  the  little  world 

within  us.     How  to  work  out  God's  purpose 

there,  how  to  bear  the  burden  of  our  own 

39 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

divinity,  how  to  achieve  our  birthright — this  is 
the  real  burden,  and  in  all  the  long  history  of 
the  world  but  one  man  ever  dared  to  say,  ''My 
burden  is  light."  And  he  was  the  One  who 
kept  a  lifelong  tryst  with  God,  the  One  in 
whom  heaven  and  earth  met,  in  whom  the 
divine  and  human  blended. 

This  very  idea  of  life,  the  meeting  of  the 
divine  and  human  in  man,  lies  at  the  heart,  is 
the  compelling  mystery,  of  all  great  literatures. 
The  songs,  stories,  and  dramas  of  history  are 
the  struggle  of  man  to  find  somewhere  on  the 
world's  great  battlefield  the  divine  Hero  of  this 
life  we  are  striving  to  live,  some  One  who  can 
meet  us  in  life's  stress  and  carry  us  over  into 
life's  victory,  descending  to  our  level  that  he 
may  lift  us  to  his. 

The  great  classics  have  failed  at  this  very 
point.  They  have  failed  to  effect  this  meeting. 
Their  aspirations  are  flung  back  upon  moaning 
hearts.  Their  heroes  escape  to  the  underworld. 
Their  dramas  ])reak  down  in  confusion. 

'Tailing  with  their  weight  of  cares 
Upon  the  great  world's  ahar  stairs 
That  slope  through  darkness  up  to  God, 
They  stretch  lame  hands  of  faith  and  grope, 
And  gather  dust  and  chaff." 

40 


The  Book  of  the  Meeting 

It  is  a  daring  thought  this  that  lies  at  the 
heart  of  great  Hteratures.  It  is  the  free  spirit 
of  man  going  forth  to  meet  the  free  Spirit  of 
God.  It  is  the  passion  of  communion.  From 
one  side  the  human  wanderer  is  groping  his 
way  outward.  From  the  other  the  divine  Hero 
is  moving  inward.  Will  they  ever  meet?  All 
human  literatures  have  wrought  on  this  prob- 
lem. The  classic  writer  failed  because  he  could 
never  think  his  way  past  nature's  laws,  human 
conditions,  and  heredity. 

''God  was  trying  to  speak  with  him  and  he  was  trying  to 
hear, 

But  the  angry  roar  of  an  angry  sea 

Had  told  his  soul  it  was  not  free ; 
And  his  strange  imperfect  ear 
Had  only  caught  on  the  breast  of  day 
The  strain  of  a  song  that  was  far  away." 

Through  freedom  we  make  our  way  to  God. 
But  freedom  is  not  a  question  in  thinking,  but 
in  living.  It  is  a  task  not  to  be  thought  out 
through  logic,  but  wrought  out  through  love. 
Therefore  the  w^ay  to  God  is  no  thought  jour- 
ney but  a  great  life  journey.  The  whole  man 
must  be  in  it  plunging  to  depths  of  penitence 
and  rising  to  heights  of  faith.  It  is  a  strange, 
wild,  dramatic  journey,  and  it  is  life  from  start 
41 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

to  finish.  God  may  not  always  be  within  range 
of  man's  thought,  but  he  is  always  within  range 
of  his  life. 

The  book  of  the  meeting,  of  the  coming  to- 
gether of  God  and  man,  then,  will  never  be  a 
work  of  science,  nor  philosophy,  nor  theology, 
nor  yet  a  work  of  the  imagination.  It  will  be  a 
fragment  of  real  life,  a  segment  of  human  his- 
tory, stranger  than  fiction,  sublimer  than  phi- 
losophy, and  more  substantial  than  science. 

Now,  in  the  days  of  King  Josiah  such  a  book 
was  found,  buried  away  in  the  temple  under  the 
dust  of  years.  They  called  it  the  book  of  the 
covenant,  primarily  the  coming  together  of  God 
and  man. 

The  origin  of  the  book  carries  us  back  into 
the  depths  of  history,  into  a  soul's  experience. 
It  grew  about  the  life  of  Moses.  Whatever  de- 
velopments may  have  followed  through  appre- 
ciative interpreters  of  after  3^ears,  the  core  of 
this  scripture  is  the  tryst  hour  of  God  and 
Moses.  It  is  one  of  the  subllmest  chapters  in 
all  the  story  of  man,  flooded  with  a  light  that  is 
not  of  this  world. 

Briefly  the  story  runs  thus :  Moses  is  born  on 
the  banks  of  the  Nile.  The  mother  looks  into 
her  child's  eyes  and  reads  the  promises.  But 
42 


The  Book  of  the  Meeting 

what  avail  the  promises?  For  there  is  the 
king's  decree.  Then  God  plays  the  pity  of  a 
princess  over  against  the  king's  decree,  and  the 
love  of  a  mother  over  against  the  king's  court, 
and  a  vision  of  the  Invisible  over  against  the 
king's  empire.  Yes,  pity,  love,  and  visions  are 
mightier  in  this  great  life  battle  than  decrees, 
courts,  and  empires.  The  product  is  a  young 
man  with  the  fire  mists  of  a  new  world  within 
him.  A  modern  writer  has  said,  ''None  but 
yourself  shall  you  meet  on  the  highway  of 
Fate.  If  Judas  go  forth  to-night  it  is  toward 
Judas  his  steps  will  tend."  Then  we  can  never 
get  beyond  ourselves.  Life  rushes  round  and 
round  in  a  circle.  Where,  then,  is  progress? 
This  is  pure  fatalism.  This  is  the  thought  of 
the  Greek  tragedy,  but  not  the  thought  of  the 
Hebrew  Bible,  not  the  deepest  intuitions  of  life. 
Judas  may  meet  no  one  but  himself  in  the  road 
of  fate.  But  I  dare  affirm  that  even  in  Judas 
there  is  not  only  the  constructed  man,  made 
thus  and  so,  shaped  for  fate;  but  there  is  also 
a  constructive  force,  the  possibilities  of  a  new 
man,  the  fire  mists  of  an  unborn  life,  the  germ 
of  a  world  that  might  be.  If  he  follow  this,  he 
shall  meet  God  and  not  himself. 

This  fire  burned  in  Moses.    It  was  the  fire  of 
43 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

creative  love,  the  fire  of  divine  chivalry.  He 
went  forth  not  along  the  highway  of  fate,  but 
of  freedom.  Every  blow  was  a  liberty  blow 
for  the  slave,  the  brother,  the  maidens.  The 
bush  burned  in  him  before  it  burned  at  the  foot 
of  Horeb.  Sometimes  we  smother  the  burning 
within  and  never  come  to  the  burning  without; 
to  the  bush  that  flames,  and  the  voice  that 
speaks — to  God,  and  life's  great  destiny. 

It  was  not  so  much  a  meeting  of  thought,  of 
council,  as  of  spirit.  Not  two  souls  with  a 
single  thought,  but  two  souls  with  a  common 
burden,  a  single  purpose.  It  is  in  our  purpose, 
not  our  thought,  we  command  our  destiny. 
We  may  be  very  poor  in  thought,  but  if  we  are 
rich  in  purpose  the  new  world  is  not  far  off. 
Moses  had  many  things  to  learn,  but  in  one 
thing  his  spirit  and  God's  burned  to  the  same 
end,  with  redeeming  purpose,  with  creative  love 
for  the  soul,  for  the  heart-world.  We  shall 
never  understand  the  full  meaning  of  that  hour, 
nor  any  other  such  hour,  when  God  and  man 
meet  in  a  similar  relation,  with  the  same  com- 
mon burden.  It  is  the  birth  hour  of  new 
worlds,  new  churches,  new  souls  resplendent 
with  divine  possibilities.  :V11  history  has  been 
struggling  to  utter  the  meaning  of  that  hour 
44 


The  Book  of  the  Meeting 

wheu  the  cry  of  the  human  reached  heaven; 
when  the  high  meaning  of  Hfe  centered  in  the 
hands  clasped  between  God  and  man. 

The  real  coming  together,  however,  of  God 
and  Moses  is  a  process  that  invites  a  deeper 
anatysis.  There  are  two  or  three  suggestive 
expressions  in  the  story  of  the  meeting.  One 
is  the  strange  name  God  gave  himself — the  *T 
Am."  Laying  aside  all  the  metaphysical  inter- 
pretations that  have  ckistered  around  the  name, 
what  is  the  first  practical  impression  awakened 
by  it?  'T  Am."  Why,  that  is  the  very  thing 
I  am  not !  That  is  just  the  thing  I  cannot  say 
about  myself,  yet  the  very  thing  I  am  forever 
striving  for.  I  want  to  be.  Some  scholars 
make  el,  the  root  word  for  God,  to  mean  goal, 
the  aim  or  end  toward  which  we  strive.  No 
doubt  the  first  practical  thought  of  life  is  not 
about  our  source,  but  our  goal.  We  are  phi- 
losophers before  we  ask  whence  we  came.  But 
the  moment  w^e  begin  to  live  we  are  striving 
toward  something  or  some  one.  We  know  that 
the  great  struggle  of  our  humanity  is  to  be — to 
be  more  and  more.  The  burden  of  all  history, 
full  of  thought,  passion,  and  tragedy  is  the 
story  of  "I  want  to  be.''  Is  it  not  the  burden  of 
every  boy's  life,  "I  want  to  be  this/'  1  want  to 
45 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

be  that,"  as  he  pursues  the  ever  vanishing  and 

deepening  ideals  ? 

"God  is— 
Man  partly  is  and  wholly  hopes  to  be." 

Now,  it  is  on  this  wonderful  road  of  "I  want 
to  be"  God  meets  us.  He  never  meets  us  on  any 
other.  It  is  the  road  strewn  w^ith  the  wreckage 
of  discarded  ideals;  the  road  of  godly  sorrow; 
every  abandoned  wreck  stained  with  the  tears 
of  repentance;  the  road  of  faith,  of  life's  ex- 
pression, ever  new,  ever  higher,  ever  holier. 

It  was  along  this  road  that  God  met  Moses. 
You  can  imagine  the  time  when  all  the  world- 
ideals  were  flashing  before  him,  when  he  said, 
"I  want  to  be  a  soldier,  I  want  to  be  a  states- 
man, I  want  to  be  a  king."  One  after  another 
they  hung  before  him  till  through  the  deepening 
light  of  the  "Invisible"  they  finally  faded  out  of 
sight. 

"There  are  flashes  struck  from  midnights, 
There  are  fire-flames  noondays  kindle, 

Whereby  piled  up  honors  perish, 
Whereby  swollen  ambitions  dwindle." 

Then   I   think  another   set  of  ideals  of  a 
Hebrew  character  hovered  over  him  when  he 
refused   to  be   called   the   son   of   Pharaoh's 
46 


The  Book  of  the  Meeting 

daughter,  but  chose  rather  to  be  called  the  son 
of  a  Hebrew  daughter.  These  were  moral  and 
spiritual  ideals,  the  higher,  diviner  thought 
of  life,  the  higher  expression  of  life,  when  he 
was  saying,  'T  want  to  be  an  Abraham, 
a  Jacob,  a  prince  of  the  house  of  Israel — yes, 
a  Messiah." 

But  what  is  the  full  significance  of  this  great 
Mosaic  ambition?  What  does  it  mean?  We 
are  still  at  the  bush,  and  God  throws  upon  the 
man  a  tremendous  task.  And  from  him  is 
wrung  the  query,  ''What  am  I  that  you  .  .  .  ?" 
The  answer  is  simply  this :  ''Moses,  when  you 
have  taken  up  the  task  and  carried  it  to  its  ful- 
fillment you  will  have  answered  your  own  ques- 
tion." God  has  a  very  practical  w^ay  of  teach- 
ing us  what  we  are.  The  moral  stature  and 
spiritual  consciousness  of  life  are  wrought  into 
us  by  the  work  we  do — worked  in  that  it  may 
be  worked  out  again,  as  the  sun  weaves  the 
dew,  air,  and  earth  into  the  plant  that  the  plant 
may  in  turn  unfold  into  the  flower.  God  is 
always  working  for  the  flowering  of  life. 

He  was  working  for  the  flowering  of  Moses 

— the  great   outer   events   growing   into  one 

sublime  inner  event.    And  that  event  was  when 

Moses  went  into  Pharaoh's  presence,  in  the 

47 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

name  of  the  people,  and  said,  "God  has  sent  me 
to  tell  you  to  let  my  son  go." 

This  is  the  answer  to  Moses's  question,  *'A 
son  of  God."  John  Fiske  says,  'The  lesson  of 
evolution  is  that  through  all  these  weary  ages 
the  human  soul  has  not  been  cherishing  in  re- 
ligion a  delusive  phantom,  but  in  spite  of  sun- 
dry endless  groping  and  stumbling  it  has  been 
rising  to  the  recognition  of  its  essential  kinship 
with  the  everlasting  God."  This  great  lesson 
of  evolution  was  long  ago  forestalled  in  the 
story  of  Moses — first  the  story,  and  then  the 
science  of  the  story.  ''Sons  of  God" — that 
thought  has  revolutionized  the  world.  Make 
room  for  the  sons  of  God.  Build  the  house 
larger  and  larger.    Let  my  sons  go. 

Out  of  this  new  relation  must  grow  great 
commandments,  the  principles  of  the  new  life. 
Henceforth  man's  relation  to  God  is  more  es- 
sential than  to  earth,  sea,  and  air,  with  their 
fatalistic  laws. 

''Closer  is  he  than  breathing, 
And  nearer  than  hands  and  feet.'* 

Never  again 

"Shall  the  angry  roar  of  an  angry  sea 
Prove  to  the  soul  it  is  not  free." 

48 


The  Book  of  the  Meeting 

It  is  said  that  when  Goethe  first  met  Herder 
his  soul  was  in  a  ferment.  He  needed  some 
master,  some  great  personality  who  should  help 
him  to  find  himself.  He  found  such  a  one  in 
Herder.  Moses  found  such  a  one  in  God. 
God  helped  Moses  to  find  himself.  The  first 
product  of  the  meeting  was  a  book,  the  book 
the  great  world  poets  tried  to  write  and  could 
not.  It  is  the  book  of  the  covenant,  of  the 
meeting.  There  must  always  be  a  book,  for  the 
glory  of  flaming  bushes  must  not  be  lost. 
Earth  is  too  poor,  and  heavenly  visions  too 
rare,  to  let  them  escape  us.  x\nd  the  book 
will  grow  into  a  library  of  books  shaping  the 
world  in  the  interest  of  this  newborn  son  of 
God. 

But  instead  of  turning  now  to  the  books  let 
us  go  a  little  deeper  into  the  Ending  process. 
We  are  often  cautioned  against  reading  too 
much  into  our  great  men.  We  have  a  horror  of 
myths.  Let  us  rather  fear  lest  we  fail  to  find 
the  half  that  is  in  them,  and  the  world  perish 
for  bread.  A  truly  great  man  will  blossom 
many  times,  every  century.  He  is  God's  cen- 
tury plant. 

In  the  ordinary  fairy  story  a  world  made  to 
order  is  supplied  for  the  hero  fitting  at  every 
(4)  49 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

point.  In  the  real  story  of  life  the  hero  must 
make  his  own  world.  Real  life  is  more  diffi- 
cult, but  more  divine.  There  is  nothing  of  the 
fairy  flavor  about  the  story  of  Moses.  No 
future  cut  and  dried,  made  easy  and  beautiful, 
stretched  before  him.  He  went  forth  to  carve 
his  own  future;  to  make  his  own  world;  to  find 
himself  through  God. 

The  supreme  fact  in  his  life  was  God's  pres- 
ence. Then  the  general  fact  of  God's  presence 
grew  into  a  specific  fact  in  his  own  experience. 
He  felt 

"A  presence  that  disturbed  him  with  the  joy 
Of  elevated  thoughts." 

Then  the  specific  fact  grew  into  something 
more  than  a  fact.  Why  did  God  so  persistently 
urge  this  fact  upon  Moses  ?  Why  did  he  press 
it  at  every  turn  ?  Why  did  he  repeat  it  over  and 
over?  "Surely  I  will  be  with  thee."  Was  it 
not  an  education,  an  informing  ?  Informing  in 
the  true  sense — forming  within;  not  of  a  fact, 
but  of  God  himself.  While  great  things  were 
transpiring  about  Moses  a  greater,  diviner 
thing  is  taking  place  in  him.  It  is  God  forming 
himself  within  the  man.  A  God-conscious  man 
IS  being  born — a  man  who  shall  know  the  pain- 
50 


The  Book  of  the  Meeting. 

ful  joy  of  divine  thoughts,  divine  feelings, 
divine  deeds. 

Still  the  process  of  self-discovery  demands 
another  fact :  not  only  the  presence  of  God,  but 
the  presence  of  the  world.  The  world  was  with 
him.  Indeed,  it  was  in  him — the  heritage  of 
the  past;  the  wisdom  of  Egypt;  the  blood  of 
princes;  the  great  wild  world  about  him. 

If  God  be  in  us  the  world  must  also  be  there; 
for  God  always  keeps  in  touch  with  his  world. 
And  it  is  through  the  meeting  of  these  two 
counterforces  that  we  rise  to  our  best,  that  we 
discover  ourselves.  When  a  small  boy  attempts 
for  the  first  time  to  cross  a  raging  river  on  a 
log  he  is  told  just  to  keep  his  eyes  on  the  log — 
to  let  nothing  swerve  him  from  that.  Slowly, 
cautiously,  the  little  feet  move  out.  The  river 
rages  beneath  him ;  he  sees  it,  feels  it,  it  sweeps 
and  swirls  through  his  soul.  For  a  moment  he 
is  seized  with  panic  between  log  and  river. 
Then  his  eye  catches  the  log  again  and  holds  it 
firm.  When  he  steps  down  on  the  other  side 
he  is  a  new  boy.  He  is  conscious  of  a  strange 
new^  mastery  within  him.  He  is  coming  to  his 
best,  as  Browning  suggests  that  Michael  stands 
the  calmer  and  nobler  for  the  writhing  of  the 
snake  beneath  his  feet.  Your  saint  who  sails 
51 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

out  of  sight  of  earth  will  never  come  to  his  best. 
Your  worldling  who  lives  like  a  mole  out  of 
sight  of  heaven  will  never  come  to  his  best.  It 
is  the  man  in  whom  heaven  and  earth  meet,  just 
as  Jesus  rose  to  his  best  when  through  the  calm 
of  heaven  he  quelled  the  rage  of  the  world.  In 
his  life  two  worlds  met  as  they  must  in  all  true 
lives.  In  him  the  troubled  sea  of  life  broke 
against  the  infinite  shore.  His  was  the  life  of 
the  breakers,  and  that  was  its  glory. 

But  this  thought  naturally  brings  us  to  an- 
other. Some  one  will  be  shocked  at  the  idea  of 
the  world  being  in  us.  Why !  is  not  the  idea  of 
life  to  keep  the  world  out  of  us  ?  Yes,  that  is 
one;  but  there  is  another  better  one.  The  world 
is  in  our  life,  but  it  is  there  in  a  strange  new 
way:  not  as  life,  but  as  the  material  out  of 
which  life  is  made,  through  which  we  find  life, 
through  which  we  both  discover  and  reveal  our- 
self;  as  nature  is  in  the  life  of  the  artist,  as 
material  for  pictures;  as  thoughts  and  events 
are  in  the  life  of  the  poet,  as  material  for 
poems;  as  the  whole  great  world  was  in  the  life 
of  Jesus  Christ,  as  material  for  a  new  world  to 
be  born  by  the  travail  of  his  own  soul.  In  this 
way  we  rise  to  our  best.  Through  this  we 
reach  the  fullness  of  our  power. 
52 


The  Book  of  the  Meeting 

Moses  appears  in  several  of  the  books.  He  is 
a  striking  figure  moving  in  and  out  through 
the  narrative — sometimes  calm,  sometimes 
shaken;  now  dumb  with  sorrow,  now  breaking 
into  song;  now  raging  at  the  people,  and  now 
pleading  with  God;  a  wonderful  man.  You 
would  never  tire  of  following  such  a  career. 

But  in  one  book  Moses  rises  to  his  best;  and 
that  is  Deuteronomy,  the  power  book  of  the 
Pentateuch.  There  you  get  the  most  of  Moses 
— the  stretch  of  soul,  the  pathos  of  patience, 
the  sublimity  of  passion,  and  the  divinity  of 
thought.  Through  the  book  resounds  the  cry 
of  the  human,  but  chastened  and  tempered  by 
the  breath  of  God  it  comes  to  us  in  such  strange 
heroic  eloquence  as  no  other  book  supplies. 

The  book  is  just  throbbing  with  the  man, 
and  the  man  at  his  best.  Here  with  eye  fixed 
upon  the  Eternal  Rock  he  rises  into  the  heroic 
mastery,  of  that  wild  human  river  that  had 
sometimes  swept  him  away.  But  there  is  more 
than  mastery  here.  Here  the  world  is  with 
him,  even  in  him,  lying  like  a  burden  upon  his 
soul — the  wrecked,  shattered,  wayward,  disap- 
pointing world.  But  his  soul  takes  fire  of  God. 
The  creative  impulse  swells  within  him.  The 
old  world  is  a  possibility,  the  material  for  a  new 
53 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

and  nobler  world.  The  muse  is  there,  the 
divinest  muse,  the  muse  of  redemption.  And 
this  broken,  disappointed,  sorrow-riven  soul 
lifts  the  old  world  into  song — a  song  that  to 
this  day  falls  like  the  rain  and  distills  like  the 
dew  on  the  seared  fields  of  life. 

I  hardly  dare  approach  the  silent  but  un- 
paralleled eloquence  of  that  last  scene  when  the 
message  came  from  the  mysterious  mountain; 
when  he  rose  in  heroic  majesty  above  a  broken 
life,  and  the  unfinished  task ;  when  with  eye  un- 
dimmed  and  step  unshaken  he  went  out  calmly 
beyond  the  vision  of  man;  when  the  fragment 
of  his  own  life  caught  hold  of  God  and  was 
made  complete. 

"Therefore  to  whom  turn  I  but  to  thee,  the  ineflfable 
Name? 
Builder  and  Maker  thou,  of  houses  not  made  with 
hands : 
What!  have  fear  of  change  from  thee  who  art  ever  the 
same  ? 
Doubt  that  thy  power  can  fill  the  heart  that  thy  power 
expands  ? 
There  shall  never  be  one  lost  good ! 

On  the  earth  the  broken  arcs,  in  the  heaven  the  perfect 
round." 

54 


LITERATURE 
The  BooK  of  Life 


"Comrado,  I  give  you  my  hand ! 

I  give  you  my  love  more  precious  than  money. 

I  give  you  myself  before  preaching  or  law : 

Will  you  give  me  yourself?    Will  you  come  travel  with 

me? 
Shall  we  stick  by  each  other  as  long  as  we  live?" 

— Whitman. 

"All  things  through  thee  take  nobler  form, 

And  look  beyond  the  earth ; 
The  mill-round  of  our  fate  appears 

A  sun-path  in  thy  worth. 
Me,  too,  thy  nobleness  has  taught 

To  master  my  despair : 
The  fountains  of  my  hidden  life 

Are  through  thy  friendship  iair." ^Emerson. 


THE  BOOK  OF  LIFE 

"And  when  thou  awakest,  it  shall  talk  with  thee."— Prov.  vi,  22. 

There  are  two  kinds  of  books :  the  book  that 
instructs,  that  widens  the  scope  of  our  knowl- 
edge, that  makes  our  horizon  larger — brings 
more  facts  within  it.  A  very  important  book, 
it  fills  our  world  with  material  for  use.  Then 
there  is  another  book — one  that  talks  with  us, 
speaks  to  us,  hunts  us  out.  It  is  not  so  anx- 
ious to  increase  our  knowledge  as  to  increase 
us;  to  draw  us  out,  wake  us  up,  inspire  us, 
move  us.  The  two  kinds  of  books  have  been 
called  "books  of  knowledge"  and  ''books  of 
power." 

The  first  book  is  full  of  facts,  only  facts. 
The  personal  element  is  avoided  that  we  may 
get  the  facts,  untouched,  untinged,  clean-cut, 
cold,  dry. 

The  second  book  has  facts,  but  also  some- 
thing more.  The  facts  are  magnetized  by  the 
writer.  Every  word  is  red-hot  with  his  person- 
ality. Every  thought  is  tinged  with  his  soul. 
There  is  some  one  in  the  book,  therefore  it 
speaks,  holds  converse  with  us,  is  one  of  the 
57 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

immortal  companions  of  life.  The  fact  books 
die;  in  the  progress  of  knowledge  new  facts 
supersede  the  old  ones.  But  the  personality 
book  lives  forever. 

The  Bible  is  such  a  book — the  greatest  of  all 
talking  books,  the  holiest  and  most  helpful  of 
all  companions. 

The  characters  of  the  book  speak  to  us 
through  the  facts — Abraham  through  his  oak, 
Jacob  through  his  well,  and  David  through  his 
city.  Oak,  well,  and  city  are  all  touched  into 
eloquence  by  the  men  who  touched  them.  And 
the  writers  speak  to  us  through  its  characters — 
through  Saul  and  Samuel  and  David.  Through 
them  they  speak  a  larger,  diviner,  more 
varied  language.  Through  a  thousand  frag- 
ments of  men  they  tell  the  great  story  of  uni- 
versal man.  Then  God  speaks  to  us  through 
the  writers.  They  are  moved  by  God  and 
swing  out  in  song  and  story  and  prophecy  far 
beyond  all  boundaries  until  the  story  of  man 
becomes  the  larger  story  of  God  and  man — yes, 
of  the  God-man.  For  when  he  came  he  said, 
'They  are  they  that  testify  of  me."  At  the 
heart  of  the  book,  then,  is  this  divine-human 
Personality  who  speaks  to  us  in  the  language  of 
literature.  For  literature  is  the  language  of 
58 


The  Book  of  Life 

personality.  It  is  the  unfolding,  the  overflow, 
the  outburst  of  the  personal  yearning  toward 
the  personal. 

The  Bible  comes  to  us  in  this  personal  lan- 
guage.   It  has  the  lyrical  speech. 

Sometimes  a  young  man  will  come  to  us  in 
trouble.  He  opens  his  heart.  We  listen,  we  ana- 
lyze. We  can  make  but  little  out  of  the  medley, 
only  this :  down  in  his  life  there  is  a  longing — 
perhaps  not  a  very  strong  one,  only  the  smok- 
ing flax.  But  it  is  there  hampered,  hedged  in, 
and  smothered  by  conditions  and  circum- 
stances. 

We  might  enter  into  plans,  ways,  and  means 
with  him.  But  we  feel  he  needs  something 
more,  something  naked  words  cannot  effect, 
something  to  strengthen  his  heart,  something 
to  fan  the  fire.  His  future  is  not  in  new  plans, 
but  in  that  smoldering  fire.  He  needs  inspira- 
tion— something  that  can  reach  and  help  the 
longing  buried  in  there  among  the  impossi- 
bilities. 

We  have  had  such  experiences  ourselves.  We 
have  felt  weak,  helpless,  baflled.  We  did  not 
want  any  new  philosophy  of  the  way,  but  just 
a  voice,  a  friendly  voice,  a  sympathetic  voice — 
something  to  start  the  echo  in  us,  to  start  the 
59 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

song.    We  could  sing  if  some  one  would  raise 
the  tune  for  us. 

Do  you  see?  The  ministry  of  song.  It  is 
one  of  the  first  ministries  of  life.  There  is  the 
cradle  song.  Do  you  think  its  only  ministry  is 
to  sing  the  child  to  sleep?  Indeed,  its  great 
ministry  is  to  sing  the  soul  awake. 

"Still  linger  in  our  noon  of  time, 

And  on  our  Saxon  tongue, 
The  echoes  of  the  home-born  hymns 

The  Aryan  mothers  sung. 

"And  childhood  had  its  litanies 

In  every  age  and  clime; 
The  earliest  cradles  of  the  race 

Were  rocked  to  poet's  rhyme." 

And  there  are  the  songs  of  manhood,  carrying 
life  out  and  up  with  a  larger,  stronger  sweep : 

"O  our  manhood's  prime  vigor !    No  spirit  feels  waste, 
Not  a  muscle  is  stopped  in  its  playing  nor  sinew  un- 
braced. 
O,  the  wild  joys  of  living !  the  leaping  from  rock  up  to 
rock." 

Then,  too,  old  age  has  its  songs  bearing  even 
across  the  flood : 

"Twilight  and  evening  bell, 

And  after  that  the  dark ! 
And  may  there  be  no  sadness  of  farewell 

When  I  embark : 
60 


The  Book  of  Life 

''For  though  from  out  our  bourn  of  time  and  place 

The  flood  may  bear  me  far, 
I  hope  to  see  my  Pilot  face  to  face 

When  I  have  crossed  the  bar." 

The  Bible  speaks  to  us  in  the  language  of 
song.  It  speaks  to  the  great  longing  of  the 
soul.  It  broods  over  our  immortality,  to  start 
the  echo,  to  raise  the  tune  in  us,  to  give  us 
heart,  to  lift  us  above  and  carry  us  beyond,  to 
make  us  conscious  of  our  immortality,  to  give 
us  strength,  to  give  us  life,  whereby  we  cry,  ''I 
can  do  all  things." 

The  power  of  these  old  Bible  songs  is  not 
their  angelic,  but  their  divine-human,  ring. 
They  reach  us  at  all  depths  of  our  humanity 
and  sing  us  into  great  heights  of  our  divinity. 
''Why  art  thou  cast  down,  O  my  soul  ?  I  shall 
yet  praise  thee  for  the  help  of  thy  countenance." 
The  very  power  of  this  old  psalm  is  the  strange 
meeting  of  its  heights  and  depths.  It  is  the 
divine  harmony  sweeping  down  upon  us 
through  life's  discords,  lifting  the  soul  from 
despair  to  praise. 

And  these  old  Bible  songs  undertake  to  sing 
the  multitudinous  song  of  life :  its  sword  songs, 
well  songs,  shepherd  songs,  battle  songs,  and  all 
its  great  life  songs. 

6i 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

The  ministry  of  song  is  one  of  the  great 
ministries.  When  Isaiah  saw  the  redeemed  re- 
turning with  joy  upon  their  heads  they  were 
singing — singing  their  way  to  Zion.  King 
Arthur's  city,  they  said,  was  reared  to  the  music 
of  harps.  But  the  great  city  that  hath  founda- 
tions is  being  built  to  the  lyrics  of  God. 

"Truth  is  fair:  should  we  forego  it? 

Can  we  sigh  right  for  a  wrong? 
God  himself  is  the  best  Poet, 

And  the  Real  is  his  song." 

If  now  we  return  again  to  our  own  life,  we 
find  the  old  longing  carried  a  step  further.  We 
are  not  just  now  thinking  of  how  to  surmount 
this  difficulty,  but  how  to  reach  that  goal.  It  is 
not  wings  for  the  hour  for  which  we  are  asking, 
but  wings  for  the  whole  flight  through.  Feel- 
ing has  passed  on  into  thought,  into  ''long, 
long  thoughts/*  We  are  trying  to  live  out 
something. 

Why  do  you  and  I  like  to  read  a  story  ?  Is 
it  not  because  we  are  trying  to  live  a  story  and 
make  it  come  out  right?  We  need  something 
more  than  a  song.  We  need  a  story.  And  the 
Bible  speaks  to  us  in  stories;  in  the  language 
of  the  Epic — real  stories ;  stories  that  take  hold 
of  us;  that  suggest;  that  lead,  and  always  in 
62 


The  Book  of  Life 

the  right  direction.  They  never  lead  backward 
into  the  vile  swamp  of  the  senses.  They  never 
take  fanciful  flights  into  impossibilities.  Real- 
istic they  are,  plain  and  simple  of  speech ;  with 
many  a  romantic  touch,  but  always  leading 
clearly,  strongly,  swiftly  toward  the  heights  of 
manhood  and  womanhood.  Call  to  mind 
Joseph,  Ruth,  David,  Samuel,  or  the  great 
tragedies  that  by  contrast  lead  in  the  same 
direction. 

Then  all  these  fragment  stories  are  woven 
into  one  whole  story.  It  is  more  than  the  story 
of  men,  it  is  the  story  of  man,  of  the  soul.  It 
does  not  simply  appeal  to  the  smaller  ambitions 
of  life,  it  appeals  to  the  supreme  ambition. 

From  the  very  first  the  book  suggests  that 
we  are  God's  children;  that  there  is  something 
in  us  that  is  like  God.  But  it  is  only  a  sugges- 
tion from  God,  an  ambition  in  man.  The  thing 
itself  is  not  apparent  at  the  start.  It  is  only  the 
fire  mists  of  the  soul's  great  story  waiting  to  be 
developed  through  the  converse  of  God  and 
man. 

And  the  converse  is  shaped  to  the  speech  of 

man;  for  God  always  talks  with  us,  not  to  us. 

This  is  an  offense  to  some  people  who  think 

God  should  have  spoken,  in  the  world's  child- 

63 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

hood,  in  the  language  of  the  full-orbed  present- 
day  science. 

God  talks  with  man.  He  gives  and  takes. 
He  takes  the  crudities  of  one  generation, 
breathes  into  them  the  larger,  rounder,  com- 
pleter life,  and  hands  them  back  to  the  next. 

So  God  tells  the  story  of  the  soul.  Rather 
he  makes  us  tell  our  own  story,  working  out 
that  divine  ambition  within  us,  that  vague  like- 
ness of  God.  At  length  we  find  ourselves  read- 
ing life  in  the  light  of  God's  own  "Son."  Then 
the  full  meaning  of  life^veeps  over  us;  the 
supreme  ambition  takes  form,  while  life's  un- 
reached possibilities  flash  upon  us  in  the  "Son." 
"Beloved,  now  are  we  the  sons  of  God;  and 
it  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be :"  but 
"we  shall  be  like  him;  for  we  shall  see  him  as 
he  is." 

Returning  once  more  to  our  own  life,  we  are 
led  to  ask,  Is  this  story  of  the  soul  possible? 
Can  this  great  story  of  the  ages  become  an 
experience  in  each  individual  ? 

If  the  Bible  were  to  follow  the  ordinary  lan- 
guage of  literature  we  should  expect  it  to  speak 
now  in  the  language  of  the  drama.  But  at  this 
point  the  ways  part.  And  very  deep  and  sig- 
nificant is  the  parting  of  the  ways. 
64 


The  Book  of  Life 

While  we  are  crying  out  for  strength  to  live 
out  the  great  life  of  the  soul,  no  mere  dramatic 
scene  passes  before  us.  The  Bible  is  decidedly 
dramatic,  but  the  critics  say  it  has  no  pure 
drama.  In  place  of  it  there  is  the  literature  of 
prophecy — the  literature  of  a  Presence.  Was 
it  the  real  dead-in-earnest  prophetic  intuitions 
of  Mrs.  Browning  that  made  her  say,  "I  will 
write  no  plays"  ?  In  prophecy  God  speaks  face 
to  face.  Its  language  is  more  than  language, 
it  is  life. 

In  Browning's  ''Saul"  we  have  the  story  of 
Saul's  insanity;  and  David  comes  to  redeem 
him  from  it.  First  he  sings  and  plays,  and  Saul 
wakens  slowly,  then  falls  back  again.  Then  he 
takes  up  the  king's  life  and  stirs  his  ambition. 
Slowly  the  great  man  rises  again,  only  to  fall 
back.  Then  the  young  shepherd  abandons  song 
and  story  and  ofifers  himself.  He'll  lay  down 
his  owm  life  for  the  king.  But  even  this  is 
powerless  to  redeem  him.  Finally,  in  a  frenzy 
of  divine  despair,  he  obliterates  himself,  leaving 
the  Christ  standing  in  his  place.  "See  the 
Christ  stand." 

How  like  the  Bible! — God  in  his  songs;  God 
in  the  great  story  of  life;  then  God  face  to  face, 
his  life  poured  out. 

(5)  65 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

It  begins  in  the  garden.  The  essence  of 
prophecy  is  not  a  prediction  but  a  presence. 
But  where  there  is  the  presence  language  will 
project  itself  beyond  the  boundaries.  Language 
will  grasp  the  future  because  the  future  itself 
is  present. 

There  is  the  first  sin,  and  God  hunting  the 
sinner  down^  as  he  has  hunted  us  down  many 
and  many  a  time  in  our  own  experience.  He 
hunts  us  down;  faces  us  with  plain  speech. 

These  face-to-face  talks  of  God  are  plain  of 
speech  because  God  is  talking  to  his  own.  As 
a  boy  said  the  other  day,  overhearing  a  conver- 
sation in  which  great  plainness  of  speech  was 
used,  ''Why,  they  talk  as  though  they  were  re- 
lated." God  speaks  plainly  because  we  are 
related  to  him.  He  cuts  deep  because  he  is 
ready  to  pour  out  his  life  for  us.  He  is  the 
most  ruthless  critic  of  life,  and  the  most  appre- 
ciative, the  most  sympathetic.  He  analyzes  us, 
takes  us  apart,  till  every  part  lies  naked  in  his 
hand  condemned  or  approved  in  the  white  light 
of  his  judgment.  Then  in  upon  the  dead,  dy- 
ing, quivering  parts  he  pours  his  life  till  they 
live  again,  stand  erect,  radiant  with  a  new  life. 
'The  angel  of  his  presence  hath  redeemed 
them."  We  know  the  power  of  a  presence  in 
66 


The  Book  of  Life. 

our  own  life.  A  skeptic  once  said  to  me,  '1  can 
sweep  away  the  arguments  of  the  philosophers, 
but  not  the  presence  of  my  mother." 

And  the  Bible  is  always  growing  into  a  pres- 
ence, a  life,  a  reality,  through  the  prophets. 

"Aye,  and  while  your  common  men 
Lay  telegraphs,  gauge  railroads,  reign,  reap,  dine, 
And  dust  the  flaunting  carpets  of  the  world 
For  kings  to  walk  on  or  our  President, 
The  prophet  suddenly  will  catch  them  up 
With  his  voice  like  a  thunder — 'This  is  soul, 
This  is  life,  this  word  is  being  said  in  heaven. 
Here's  God  down  on  us  I    What  are  you  about?'  " 

The  book  is  forever  growing  into  a  presence; 
dissolving  at  times  into  the  great  world  history, 
but  resolving  again  into  the  divine  Presence. 
It  is  the  same  face  with  its  assuring  light,  the 
same  heart  w^ith  its  redeeming  blood.  In  his- 
toric form  once  he  came.  In  spiritual  redeem- 
ing presence  he  forever  and  forever  comes. 

"But  warm,  sweet,  tender,  even  yet 

A  present  help  is  he; 
And  faith  has  yet  its  Olivet, 

And  love  its  Galilee. 

"O  Lord  and  Master  of  us  all, 

Whate'er  our  name  or  sign. 
We  own  thy  sway,  we  hear  thy  call, 

We  test  our  lives  by  thine!" 

67 


HISTORY 
The  Crossed  Hands 


"The  real  and  consoling  truth  is  that  our  free  will  can 
modify  our  original  nature.  The  dark  problem  of 
heredity  need  not  oppress  us  with  an  eternal  burden; 
and  a  revolt  of  our  personality  can  often  cast  to  the 
winds  the  tyranny  of  ancestral  traits,  and  the  crippling 
restraint  of  outgrown  creeds." — Victor  Charhonnel. 

"O  my  God,  I  will  live.  But  I  shall  not  truly  live 
unless  thou  makest  thyself  felt  in  the  involuntary  im- 
pulses of  my  being.  I  will  live  by  thee.  Be  thou  God  of 
my  will." — Ihid. 

"God  is  the  great  companion  of  man,  the  loving  yet 
terrible  friend  of  his  inmost  soul." —  John  Cotter  Mor- 
rison. 


THE  CROSSED  HANDS 

"And  Israel  stretched  out  his  right  hand,  and  laid  it  upon  Ephraim's 
head,  who  was  the  younger,  and  his  left  hand  upon  Manasseh's  head, 
guiding  his  hands  wittingly ;  for  Manasseh  was  the  firstborn.  .  .  .  And 
said,  .  .  .  The  Angel  which  redeemed  me  from  all  evil,  bless  the  lads." 
—Gen.  xlviii,  14-16. 

"And  Jacob  called  unto  his  sons,  and  said,  .  .  .  That  I  may  tell  you 
that  which  shall  befall  you  in  the  last  days."— Gen.  xlix,  i. 

The  story  of  one  man  at  this  point  branches 
into  the  story  of  many.  It  is  no  longer  one 
colossal  figure,  like  Abraham,  but  twelve  frag- 
ments of  the  Abrahamic  life,  and  each  frag- 
ment an  individual  that  will  again  subdivide, 
till  men  have  grown  to  families,  and  families  to 
tribes,  and  tribes  to  nations.    This  is  history. 

Moved  by  the  old  Abrahamic  faith,  fire,  am- 
bition, handed  down  the  royal  line,  Joseph 
brings  his  two  sons  to  be  adopted  into  Jacob's 
family.  The  adoption  will  give  them  a  place  in 
the  succession  of  Israel. 

When  the  father  brings  the  boys  for  the 
blessing  he  presents,  according  to  the  custom, 
the  elder,  Manasseh,  for  the  right  hand,  and  the 
younger,  Ephraim,  for  the  left,  giving  the  elder 
the  first  place.  But  the  trembling  hands  of  the 
old  seer  cross  themselves,  the  right  resting 
upon  Ephraim  and  the  left  upon  Manasseh. 
And  when  the  father  resisted,  saying,  ''You  are 
71 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

making  a  mistake,"  the  old  man  replied,  ''Nay, 
I  know,  I  know." 

The  mystery  of  the  crossed  hands — the  first 
is  last,  and  the  last  first.  One  man  designed  by 
birth  and  training  for  a  chief  is  superseded  by 
another  who  has  never  entered  into  our  calcu- 
lations. 

What  is  the  mystery  of  the  crossed  hands? 
Why  does  one  man  live,  and  iive,  and  live 
through  all  the  centuries,  and  another  perish 
from  the  memory  of  man?  Why  does  the 
course  of  life  in  families,  churches,  nations, 
take  such  strange  directions,  baffling  all  proph- 
ecy and  confounding  all  science  ? 

Is  there  a  clear  and  simple  gospel  of  progress 
that  throws  light  upon  the  mystery?  This  is 
the  burning  question  of  philosophy  to-day. 
Our  modern  truth-hunters  have  left  the  airy 
realms  of  abstraction  and  are  plunging  elbow- 
deep  into  the  hard  facts  of  everyday  life,  trying 
to  break  the  seven  seals,  trying  to  open  the 
book — the  great  book  of  history — and  win 
therefrom  the  secret  of  God.  This  is  the 
attempt  of  our  social  studies, 

"As  with  fingers  of  the  blind 
We  are  groping  here  to  find 
What  the  hieroglyphics  mean." 

^2 


The  Crossed  Hands 

When  Kidd  takes  us  with  him  through  the 
maze  of  London  Hfe  we  are  dazed  and  baffled. 
At  last  he  stops  before  the  church,  and  we  are 
reheved  to  think  the  quest  ends  here.  But 
when  he  proceeds  to  give  us  fifteen  different 
definitions  of  reHgion  we  are  puzzled  again, 
till  at  last  in  his  final  analysis  he  brings  them 
down  to  a  supernatural  power.  But  this  super- 
natural power  is  also  the  basis  of  the  Bible. 
Then,  instead  of  following  the  weary  way  of 
the  philosopher,  let  us  turn  to  this  old  Bible 
story,  dig  into  its  depths,  and  learn  what  it  has 
to  say  about  the  mystery  of  the  crossed  hands. 

Tennyson  has  said  that  if  we  could  under- 
stand a  flower,  what  it  is,  root  and  all,  and  all 
in  all,  we  should  know  what  God  and  man  are. 
And  if  we  can  go  to  the  bottom  of  this  old  Bible 
story  root  and  all,  and  all  in  all,  we  shall  find 
the  gospel  of  history. 

The  first  thing  we  notice  in  this  scene  around 
the  dying  patriarch  is  Joseph  bringing  his  sons 
for  Jacob's  blessing.  There  was  no  doubt  a 
fine  chance  for  the  boys  in  Egypt.  Great  world 
opportunities  were  there.  But  Joseph  turns 
his  back  upon  them  all  and  leads  his  two  sons 
over  to  an  old  chief  without  a  country,  and 
dying  at  that. 

73 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

There  were  no  world  opportunities  here,  but 
there  were  great  divine  opportunities.  There 
is  a  difference.  A  mere  world  opportunity 
offers  us  the  world  outside  of  us,  ignoring,  and 
even  sometimes  ruining  the  inner  world,  while 
a  divine  opportunity  offers  us  the  outer  world 
through  the  inner  world — first  the  kingdom  of 
God,  first  the  kingdom  of  manhood,  first  the 
life  within,  its  rights  to  live  and  evolve.  This 
is  man's  only  divine  right — to  live — to  unfold 
— to  evolve.    And  faith  claims  this  right. 

This  led  Joseph  to  put  his  sons  in  the  suc- 
cession of  the  divine  opportunities.  He  recog- 
nizes the  value  of  environment.  He  believes 
it  is  worth  something  to  those  boys  to  keep  step 
with  such  men  as  Abraham,  to  get  into  the 
heroic  swing,  to  be  brought  up  on  the  old  songs 
and  stories  woven  out  of  the  heroic  past. 

"Faith  of  our  fathers !  Hving  still 
In  spite  of  dungeon,  fire,  and  sword : 

O  how  our  hearts  beat  high  with  joy 
Whene'er  we  hear  that  glorious  word : 

Faith  of  our  fathers !  holy  faith ! 

We  will  be  true  to  thee  till  death !" 

It  is  worth  something  to  them  to  live  imder 
the  inspiration  of  successive  revelations,  and 
put  their  hand  to  such  a  task  as  had  been  as- 

74 


The  Crossed  Hands 

signed  his  people.  And  he  was  right:  the 
character  of  man  can  never  be  separated  from 
his  environment.  Calvinistic  creeds  and  Scot- 
tish mountains  will  make  rugged  men.  Arca- 
dian hills  and  Grecian  thought  will  carve  classic 
brows.  A  mountainous  home  and  border  war- 
fare will  make  Ephraim  a  warrior.  But  this 
alone  can  never  explain  the  mystery  of  the 
crossed  hands.  For  see :  Manasseh  is  the  eldest. 
He  is  carefully  trained  with  that  thought  in 
view.  He  has  the  inspiration  of  birth,  the 
advantage  of  opportunity.  The  songs  and 
stories  are  for  him.  Every  influence  is  thrown 
around  him  to  make  him  a  right-hand  man,  and 
yet  he  turns  out  a  left-hand  man.  And  history 
is  ever  repeating  this  story:  start  men  at  the 
right  hand,  and  they  come  out  on  the  left. 
Man  can  never  be  saved  by  walling  him  in  with 
privileges,  though  every  privilege  bear  the  face 
of  an  angel. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  nations  have  al- 
ways died  not  of  their  disadvantages  but  of 
their  advantages;  for  advantages  breed  caste, 
and  caste  is  the  fatal  disease  of  humanity.  It  is 
supposed  to  be  bad  on  the  outside,  it  is  worse 
inside.  Caste  of  wealth,  caste  of  intellect,  caste 
of  blood,  caste  of  religion,  all  fatal.  Israel, 
75 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

Rome,  and  Greece  all  died  of  caste.  They  tell 
us  the  privileged  classes  of  Europe  are  con- 
stantly dying  at  the  top — sustained  only  by  the 
replenishing  again  from  the  bottom. 

This  age  is  making  much  of  the  word  "en- 
vironment," and  there  is  much  in  it,  but  by  no 
means  the  full  meaning  of  life.  It  is  not  a  full 
gospel.  The  secret  is  deeper.  Of  all  the  sons 
of  Jacob  the  disadvantages  and  hardships  of 
Joseph  were  the  greatest;  yet  he  alone  excelled. 
In  any  country  village  it  is  no  uncommon 
thing  for  the  son  of  the  nabob  to  go  to  ruin, 
reeking  in  privileges,  while  the  barefoot  boy 
makes  his  way  over  the  hard  and  flinty  rocks 
to  success. 

Turning  again  to  our  story,  we  find  another 
very  interesting  feature.  Jacob  in  blessing  his 
sons  characterizes  them :  "Reuben,  you  are  like 
water — unstable;  no  one  will  ever  be  able  to 
depend  upon  you."  'Tssachar,  you  are  like  an 
ass — a  beast  of  burden,  dull  and  mundane." 
"No  spark  disturbs  the  clod."  "Zebulun,  you 
are  a  seaman,  restless,  roving."  That  is,  back 
of  a  man's  opportunities  are  his  native  charac- 
teristics— heredity.  Blood  tells.  We  are  the 
fruit  of  the  ages.  We  grow  on  a  tree  that  is 
not  of  our  planting.  We  are  a  house  built  not 
76 


The  Crossed  Hands 

by  hands,  but  by  the  red  corpuscles  of  the 
centuries. 

''Humanity,"  says  one,  "at  all  times  of  its 
existence  is  composed  far  more  of  the  dead  than 
of  the  living."  This  is  often  too  true,  prac- 
tically true ;  we  are  more  grandfather  than  self. 
Our  grandfather  was  left  to  us,  and  we  have 
made  nothing  out  of  him. 

Grant  Allen,  in  his  last  book,  proposed  to 
save  the  world  by  the  proper  mixing  of  blood, 
as  you  breed  horses.  If  this  were  possible  it 
might  do  for  the  luiborn,  if  we  knew  how  to 
mix  the  blood.  But  it  is  certainly  hard  on  the 
rest  of  us.  We  might  undertake  to  save  our- 
selves first-hand.  But  to  do  it  second-hand  is 
beyond  us. 

This  old  Bible  thought,  coming  to  the  sur- 
face in  many  places — almost  a  matter  of  faith 
as  seen  in  the  jealously  guarded  genealogies — 
this  old  thought  is  the  divinest  utterance  of 
science.  It  has  almost  revolutionized  the  study 
of  the  race.  It  is  valuable  in  history,  nations, 
families,  and  men.  But  it  is  not  the  secret  of 
the  crossed  hands.  It  is  not  the  gospel  of  his- 
tory. Now  and  then  it  is  put  to  utter  confusion, 
in  the  crisscrossing  of  good  and  bad,  of  wise 
and  unwise. 

17 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

"Here  and  there  a  cotter's  babe  is  royal-born  by  right 
divine ; 

Here  and  there  my  lord  is  lower  than  his  oxen  or  his 
swine. 

Chaos,  Cosmos !  Cosmos,  Chaos !  once  again  the  sicken- 
ing game." 

Where  are  the  hereditary  sons  of  Grecian 
genius  ?  where  the  blood  children  of  the  Roman 
patrician?  where  the  natural  descendants  of 
Abraham  ? 

No  man  can  begin  with  his  ancestors.  If 
they  are  good,  he  is  proud  and  crawls  inside 
like  a  hermit  crab.  If  they  are  bad,  then  he 
says,  "1  am  not  to  blame."  The  men  in  our 
prisons  usually  explain  themselves  by  their 
ancestry.  They  hide  themselves  among  the 
dead.  The  secret  of  the  crossed  hands  lies 
deeper. 

Now  let  us  turn  once  more  to  the  Bible  story. 
Here  is  a  leaf  out  of  Jacob's  life :  *The  Angel 
which  redeemed  me  from  all  evil,  bless  the 
lads."  Deeper  than  the  blessing  of  environ- 
ment, deeper  than  the  blessing  of  inherited 
tendencies,  is  the  blessing  of  the  Angel.  Every 
true  and  earnest  soul  living  deeply,  strongly, 
and  divinely  is  conscious  that  his  life  is  re- 
deemed by  some  One,  a  power  not  himself. 
This  was  Socrates's  experience.  This  is  the 
7B 


The  Crossed  Hands 

experience  of  every  great  human  figure  rising 
to  its  conscious  destiny. 

We  have  come,  then,  to  the  individual.  Give 
your  man  his  environment,  his  opportunities, 
what  will  he  do  with  them?  They  are  not  life, 
only  possibiUties  of  life.  Or  give  him  his  in- 
herited tendencies,  the  possibilities  within  him. 
Still  the  question  remains,  What  will  he  do 
with  these  ? 

One  of  Browning's  characters  is  made  to 
take  a  blot  and  develop  it,  shaping  its  rays, 
rounding  it  out,  finally  into  a  star.  Given,  then, 
the  blot  we  call  opportunities  without,  and  tend- 
encies within,  how  are  we  to  shape  them  into 
a  star  ?  Who  is  equal  to  such  a  task  ?  Who  can 
take  this  strange  human  blot  and  redeem  it  into 
a  star  ?  Who  has  eyes,  eyes  to  see  the  divine  in 
the  humdrum  of  the  hour?  Who  knows  that 
these  are  angels?  Are  they  not  the  same  old 
wayfarers  who  have  called  at  our  door  so  many 
times  ?  Who  can  always  tell  the  difference  be- 
tween a  tramp  and  an  angel  ?  And  who  under- 
stands the  genius  of  tendencies?  Who  can 
grade  them?  Who  has  eyes  to  see  them? 
Who  dares  say,  "This  I'll  curb,  and  this  I'll 
cultivate,  and  this  I'll  kill"?  Who  is  such  a 
master  of  tendencies?  What  will  save  Abra- 
79 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

liam  with  his  strange  great  dream  of  Hfe  from 
becoming  a  mere  dreamer?  What  will  save 
Joseph  with  his  ambition  from  becoming  a 
tyrant?  What  will  save  Jacob  with  his  thrift 
from  becoming  a  miser  ? 

One  thing,  one  only;  the  battle  is  on  from  the 
first — not  between  Jacob  and  Esau,  but  between 
Jacob  and  the  Angel.  And  there  by  the  Jabbok 
the  Angel  conquered.  The  fast  fist  was  opened, 
and  the  man  passed  into  the  prince.  As  he 
gradually  rose  in  response  to  the  Angel  of  life 
he  put  his  environment  under  tribute.  Indeed, 
he  put  himself  under  tribute.  He  rose  into  the 
mastery  of  life  through  the  Master  of  life,  the 
Angel  of  redemption,  the  Hero  of  the  soul. 

There  is  an  Angel  of  redemption,  a  Master 
of  life,  a  Hero  of  the  soul,  the  One  with  whom 
you  and  I  have  wrestled  at  our  Jabbok.  Some- 
times he  seems  to  stand  in  our  way;  he  will  not 
let  us  go  over;  he  holds  us  back,  and  we  turn 
upon  him  with  all  our  force.  But  when  he 
would  leave  us,  seeming  to  give  way  to  our 
wish,  then  we  cry,  'T  will  not  let  thee  go." 

Ah,  this  wrestling  Angel  of  life!    How  he 

works  in  among  the  tendencies  of  the  soul,  and 

out  among  the  opportunities  of  life,  checking 

this  ambition,  shaping  that  aspiration,  training 

80 


The  Crossed  Hands 

this  desire.  He  makes  the  path  easy  here  and 
hard  there,  the  ascent  now  slow,  now  fast.  The 
Angel  we  fear  yet  love,  cling  to  yet  oppose. 
Through  him  we  rise  into  the  mastery  of  life. 
Through  him  we  command  our  destiny.  This 
is  the  secret  of  the  crossed  hands. 

In  the  little  seed  we  plant  in  the  springtime 
there  are  three  things :  First,  its  inheritance : 
this  is  born  a  rose,  that  a  bluebell,  and  this  a 
pansy.  Second,  its  environments :  earth,  air, 
dew,  and  sun.  Then  there  is  the  Angel  of  life, 
the  mystery  that  wrestles  with  the  inherited 
tendencies,  not  to  change  but  to  master  them; 
the  mystery  that  wrestles  with  sun,  dew,  air, 
and  earth,  not  to  defeat  them,  but  to  master 
them,  bringing  forth  the  pansy,  the  bluebell, 
and  the  rose,  each  in  its  order.  Just  those  three 
things  in  life — your  native  qualities  and  your 
environment,  your  characteristics  and  your 
surroundings,  and  the  Angel  of  life  bringing 
them  into  the  divine  mastery,  making  them 
throb  with  a  newborn  life,  breathing  upon 
them,  shaping  and  carrying  them  upward  into 
sons  of  God. 

Kidd  in  his  suggestive  book  started  from  the 
general  thought  of  a  supernatural  power.  In 
his  last  paragraph  he  said,  'T  find  a  growing 
(6)  8i 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

sense  of  reverence  in  the  world."  You  have, 
then,  taking  the  book  as  a  whole,  this  position : 
the  supernatural  mystery  with  our  faces  toward 
it.  This  is  the  position  throughout  the  Bible — 
the  great  mystery  and  man  facing  toward  it. 

When  I  was  a  boy  I  used  to  look  away  upon 
the  mountains.  Behind  the  purple  mists  I 
imagined  a  world  of  battlefields,  of  lions,  and 
cities.  When  I  suggested  this  to  another  boy 
he  laughed  at  me.  But  I  lived  many  happy 
days  out  of  that  mystery.  It  never  worked  out 
as  I  expected — no  cities,  no  battles,  no  lions. 
And  one  day  my  world  faded  away,  giving 
place  to  another. 

There  are  many  such  mysteries  out  of  which 
we  live,  mysteries  that  are  the  compelling 
power  of  great  religions  and  great  philosophies. 
Finally  they  topple  over  and  fall  to  pieces. 

Not  so  this  supreme  mystery  of  the  Bible, 
this  Angel  of  life,  this  Hero  of  the  soul.  Out 
of  him  men  have  lived  the  highest  masteries  of 
life;  out  of  him  have  mastered  the  past,  the 
present,  the  future.  There  has  been  no  fading 
and  falling  away  of  this  mystery.  It  has  been 
growing  sublimer  and  sublimer,  more  and  more 
real ;  unfolding  to  grander  and  grander  heights. 
And  this  is  history. 

82 


HISTORY 
The  Heart  of  the  Vision 


"He  is  the  axis  of  the  star, 

He  is  the  sparkle  of  the  spar, 

He  is  the  heart  of  every  creature. 

He  is  the  meaning  of  each  feature; 

And  his  mind  is  the  sky, 

Than  all  it  holds  more  deep,  more  high." 

— Emerson. 

"Progress  is  the  law  of  life — man's  self  is  not  yet  Man ! 

For  men  begin  to  pass  their  nature's  bound, 

And  find  new  hopes  and  cares  which  fast  supplant 

Their  proper  joys  and  griefs;  and  outgrow  all 

The  narrow  creeds  of  right  and  wrong,  which  fade 

Before  the  unmeasured  thirst  for  good ;  while  peace 

Rises  within  them  ever  more  and  more." — Browning. 


THE  HEART  OF  THE  VISION 

"Where  there  is  no  vision,  the  people  perish." — Prov,  xxix,  i8. 

Proverbs  are  born  of  the  storm  and  stress  of 
human  history.  They  are  the  evolution  of  a 
people's  experience;  not  the  handiwork  of 
thought,  but  the  children  of  the  soul.  There  is 
blood  in  them. 

This  proverb  is  born  of  Israel's  experience 
and  leads  into  the  heart  of  her  history :  "Where 
there  is  no  vision,  the  people  perish."  This  old 
Hebrew  history  is  built  out  of  visions;  out  of 
what  the  seers  saw.  Abraham,  Jacob,  Moses, 
and  Isaiah  were  men  of  visions.  They  saw, 
and  because  they  saw  they  built.  The  building 
power  is  always  born  of  visions.  Through 
them  the  nerve  of  heaven  is  brought  to  bear 
upon  the  facts  of  earth. 

The  old  Hebrew  world  with  its  life,  legisla- 
tion, and  literature  was  born  of  visions.  The 
patterns  Moses  saw  in  the  mount  were  not  like 
the  patterns  we  mark  around.  They  were 
visions  of  truth,  glimpses  of  God  and  the  soul, 
afterward  expressed  in  candlesticks,  draperies, 
and  altars,  till  the  whole  temple  throbbed  with 
the  presence  of  the  living  God. 
85 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

Her  poets  were  seers.  They  saw  beyond. 
They  had  such  visions  of  God  as  threw  all 
nature  into  his  ministry.  The  heavens  declared 
his  glory,  the  day  was  full  of  his  speech,  and 
the  night  shone  with  his  knowledge.  The  trees 
of  the  field  clapped  their  hands  and  the  moun- 
tains and  hills  broke  forth  into  singing  at  his 
approach.  All  nature  was  touched  and  tinged 
by  the  presence  of  God. 

The  prophets  were  moral  and  spiritual  seers. 
They  saw,  saw  visions  of  a  new  world,  a  new 
age,  a  new  man,  a  God-man.  With  bleeding 
hands  and  breaking  heart  they  built  with  the 
rough  material  at  their  feet.  To  them  the 
times,  the  nation,  all  history  was  the  great  work 
field  of  God,  and  the  true  mission  of  man  to  toil 
by  his  side. 

In  all  this  the  nation  was  struggling  through 
her  visions  into  fellowship  with  God.  Seeing 
beyond  is  always  looking  Godward,  striving 
unto  his  presence.  And  when  there  is  no  vision, 
when  we  fail  to  look  beyond,  the  fellowship  is 
lost  and  the  people  perish;  for  we  live  by  the 
fellowship  of  God. 

And  there  were  times  when  there  were  no 
visions.  Men  saw  the  temple  and  the  furniture, 
but  nothing  beyond.  They  heard  no  voices,  felt 
86 


The  Heart  of  the  Vision 

no  great  emotions.  Temple-treaders,  Isaiah 
called  them;  not  listeners,  not  worshipers,  not 
seers,  but  treaders.  Good  treaders,  but  souls 
are  not  grown  in  a  religious  treadmill.  It  takes 
visions.  Life  forever  seeks  the  open  sky,  the 
larger  range,  the  fellowship  of  God. 

And  there  were  times  when  the  singers  were 
dumb;  for  men  saw  nothing,  heard  nothing, 
felt  nothing  to  sing  about.  The  earth  was  a 
plow  field  for  the  farmer,  a  pasture  for  the 
shepherd,  and  a  quarry  for  the  builder.  Good 
times  for  grain  and  cattle  and  building,  but  not 
for  men.  It  takes  visions  to  make  men.  You 
can  make  no  patriots,  no  true  statesmen,  no  real 
prophets,  without  visions.  There  is  always 
danger  when  we  grow  prosperous — when  the 
w^orld  about  us  becomes  too  thick  and  gross  of 
tongue  to  speak  the  speech  of  God;  when  the 
poets  fail  us. 

And  there  were  times  when  the  prophets  had 
no  visions  from  the  Lord.  Knowledge  had  in- 
creased, things  amassed,  the  people  multiplied. 
Knowledge  and  things  and  people :  and  people 
and  things  and  knowledge,  how  shall  they  be 
set  to  the  music  of  divine  progress?  What  is 
lacking?  The  vision,  the  ideal,  the  creative 
force  of  heaven.  Nations  are  not  built  from 
87 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

the  bottom  up,  but  from  the  top  down;  not  up 
from  the  rocks,  but  down  from  the  constitution, 
the  ideal,  the  vision.  There  is  no  art  by  which 
men  and  money  and  intellect  can  be  shaped  into 
a  church.  It  can  only  be  ''built  out  of  heaven 
to  God."  And  the  lesson  of  all  lessons  to  be 
learned  is  that  man  can  never  be  built  up  from 
the  earth,  though  we  command  the  powers  of 
heredity  and  the  influences  of  environment.  He 
must  be  built  not  toward  the  God-man,  but  out 
of  the  God-man,  inheriting  his  mastery.  Divine 
progress  is  not  in  knowledge  and  things  and 
people,  but  in  the  mastery  of  the  soul.  Master 
souls  are  always  the  need  of  the  age — masters 
of  what  we  know,  making  every  thought  throb 
with  the  life  of  God;  masters  of  what  we  have, 
winging  every  dollar  with  the  pinions  of  love; 
masters  of  what  we  are,  waking  the  cold  mar- 
ble of  our  humanity  into  living  statues  of 
Christhood. 

But  to  reach  the  full  meaning  of  this  thought 
we  need  to  carry  our  study  another  step,  to  ana- 
lyze the  old  Hebrew  vision.  What  is  the  essen- 
tial feature  of  the  Hebrew  vision?  Whence 
its  great  value?  Why  do  we  brush  aside  the 
visions  of  other  peoples  and  hold  that  these 
Hebrew  visions  are  the  very  fountains  of  life? 


The  Heart  of  the  Vision 

If  we  answer  that  they  are  supernatural,  even 
this  is  no  final  answer.  The  word  must  be  ex- 
changed for  another  greater  and  more  vital, 
just  as  supernatural  but  more  practical  and 
powerful. 

If  we  examine  one  of  these  visions  we  shall 
find  that  the  essential  feature  is  not  the  lamp, 
the  ladder,  nor  the  bush.  These  are  more  or 
less  indifferent  to  the  essential  fact.  The  essen- 
tial fact  is  that  a  divine  Person  is  talking  with 
a  human  being.  The  personal  is  the  real 
supernatural. 

Personality  is  the  greatest,  most  real,  most 
practical  word  yet  born  into  the  language  of 
man.  The  real  God  must  be  personal ;  for  only 
a  person  can  speak,  and  a  God  who  cannot 
speak  for  himself  is  no  God. 

Sometimes  we  speak  for  God  and  shape  him 
by  our  definitions.  This  is  the  God  of  our 
books,  and  he  can  take  excellent  care  of  our 
books.  But  the  God  who  takes  care  of  me  must 
speak  for  himself,  must  have  no  sponsor.  He 
must  speak  for  himself  and  to  me  if  he  mold 
me  into  his  own  likeness.  Kipling  touches  the 
point  w^ith  supreme  sarcasm.  'Tomlinson"  has 
gone  to  heaven  and  they  won't  have  him.  He 
goes  to  hell  and  they  won't  have  him  there. 
89 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

He  is  finally  sent  back  to  earth  with  the 
grevvsome  benediction,  "And  the  God  that 
you  took  from  a  printed  book  be  with  you, 
Tomlinson!" 

Also  the  truly  practical  God  must  be  per- 
sonal. There  is  nothing  on  earth  so  practical 
as  personal  force.  We  sometimes  say  of  a  man 
he  knows  enough,  or  he  is  good  enough,  but  he 
can't  do  it.  He  lacks  that  something  we  call 
personal  force;  that  something  that  makes 
things  go;  that  something  that  does  all  the 
originating,  the  creative  work  in  among  the 
things  of  earth;  that  something  that  finds  for 
its  largest,  highest,  holiest  field  of  operation  not 
things  but  men.  When  the  one  perfect  Person- 
ality of  all  history  was  here  on  earth  it  was 
found  that  the  supreme  art  of  his  life  was  to 
reproduce  himself  in  others,  to  lift  men  to  the 
level  of  God. 

Now,  at  the  heart  of  the  Hebrew  vision  there 
was  a  personal  God  brooding  over  humanity, 
as  the  eagle  broods  over  her  young.  The  eagle 
broods  over,  stirs  up,  and  thrusts  forth  her 
young  that  they  may  become  like  herself.  So 
God  broods  over,  stirs  up,  and  thrusts  out  his 
men  that  they  may  become  like  himself. 

''We  go  to  prove  our  soul."  A  personal  God 
90 


The  Heart  of  the  Vision 

hovers  around  the  soul  as  a  mother  hovers 
around  her  child.  They  tell  me  that  the  child 
reared  in  an  incubator  lacks  the  personal  quali- 
ties and  development  of  the  child  who  has  been 
under  the  personal  care  of  a  mother.  Person- 
ality is  born  of  personality.  We  love  him  be- 
cause he  first  loved  us.  The  sequence  is  not  of 
logic  but  of  life.  Said  a  kindergarten  teacher 
who  has  under  her  a  class  of  institutional  chil- 
dren :  ''O  those  institutional  children !  they  are 
like  sticks,  so  dull,  so  unresponsive,  so  meaning- 
less. I  would  rather  have  the  dirtiest  street 
child  that  has  been  evoked  and  evolved  by  a 
mother's  care." 

Personal  development  is  born  of  a  brooding 
personality.  Deeper  than  the  genius  of  a  peo- 
ple, than  all  her  inherited  traits ;  deeper  than  her 
environment,  whether  of  nature,  history,  or 
literature,  is  the  force  of  a  personal  God  in 
evoking  and  evolving  personal  life  in  men; 
drawing  them  out  and  up  into  self-mastery; 
breathing  into  them  a  keener  sensitiveness, 
alive  and  responsive  to  every  hum.an  voice; 
flooding  them  with  a  richness  and  fullness  of 
life  that  is  forever  breaking  its  boundaries  and 
sweeping  into  the  future  wath  immortal  fore- 
casts. It  is  this  exhaustless  wealth  of  personal 
91 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

life  that  puts  the  world  forever  under  tribute 
to  man. 

•'All  instincts  immature, 

All  purposes  unsure, 

That  weighed  not  as  his  work,  yet  swelled  the  man's 

amount : 
Thoughts  hardly  to  be  packed 
Into  a  narrow  act, 

Fancies  that  broke  through  language  and  escaped : 
All  I  could  never  be, 
All  men  ignored  in  me, 
This  was  I  worth  to  God." 

Now,  let  this  idea  of  personality  be  carried 
into  our  life  more  definitely.  It  is  often,  and 
truly,  said  that  the  great  proof  of  the  inspira- 
tion of  the  Bible  is  that  it  inspires.  Yet,  like 
most  epigrams,  the  phrase  will  bear  some  quali- 
fication. There  are  other  books  that  inspire  us. 
They  inspire  us  with  great  thoughts,  with  true 
morals,  with  artistic  fervor.  But  at  the  heart 
of  the  Bible  there  is  something  more  than 
morals,  truth,  or  beauty.  There  is  a  divine  Per- 
sonality. The  inspiration  of  the  Bible  is  more 
than  the  inspiration  of  the  true,  the  good,  or 
the  beautiful;  it  is  the  inspiration  of  Person- 
ality. It  is  more  than  an  inspirational  power, 
it  is  a  redeeming  power.  It  redeems  us  not 
simply  to  the  true,  the  beautiful,  and  the  good; 
92 


The  Heart  of  the  Vision 

it  redeems  us  from  self -centered  individualities 
into  living,  loving,  God-centered  personalities. 
It  transforms  us  from  a  whirlpool  into  a 
fountain. 

Personality  is  not  only  the  last  word  to  be 
said  about  God,  it  is  the  last  word  to  be  said 
about  us.  ''Be  ye  therefore  perfect,  even  as 
your  Father  which  is  in  heaven  is  perfect." 
This  is  the  goal,  the  perfect  person.  The  goal 
is  not  doctrinal  but  personal.  And  as  we  rise 
more  and  more  toward  that  supreme  goal  we 
shall  rise  in  power.  What  kind  of  power  ?  Per- 
sonal power.  What  is  the  Holy  Spirit  but  the 
personal  force  of  God?  And  it  is  for  this  we 
perish.  It  is  this  personal  force,  this  Holy 
Spirit,  whereof  our  nerves  are  scant. 

Our  lives  are  made  up  of  so  many  strange, 
incongruous  fragments.  We  gather  ourselves 
in  from  the  four  corners  of  the  world.  George 
M^cDonald's  catechism  of  babyhood  is  not 
astray,  after  all : 

"Where  did  you  come  from,  baby  dear? 
Out  of  the  everywhere  into  here. 
Where  did  you  get  those  eyes  so  blue? 
Out  of  the  sky  as  I  came  through." 

So  we  pick  ourselves  up  along  the  way.    We 
are  not  a  chip  off  the  old  block,  as  we  used  to 
93 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

say.  We  are  chips  off  a  good  many  blocks. 
Some  are  old  and  some  are  new;  some  of  the 
street  and  some  of  the  schools;  some  of  the 
market  and  some  of  the  home. 

And  the  real  problem  of  life  is  to  achieve  per- 
sonal unity;  to  find  the  spiritual  bond  that  will 
bind  all  the  fragments  into  one  magnificent  and 
masterly  whole.  Personalize  every  chip.  Make 
every  part  throb  with  personal  force. 

There  are  two  movements  in  life:  one  the 
gathering  in,  the  individualizing;  the  other  the 
sending  out,  the  personalizing.  What  comes  in 
never  goes  back  the  same:  what  comes  in  as 
earth,  air,  sun,  and  dew  returns  in  leaf,  bud,  and 
blossom.  So  into  our  life  come  the  fragments 
to  be  sent  back  again,  but  never  the  same. 
They  are  to  be  personalized;  tinged  by  the  soul; 
sent  back  throbbing  with  personal  force,  with 
the  Spirit  of  God. 

Our  life  is  gathered  into  the  individual  to  be 
returned  again  in  the  universal,  in  the  gospel 
for  all  men.  Here  is  a  pansy,  gathering  itself 
into  certain  colors  and  forms.  What  does  it 
return  ?  Not  its  individuality,  not  its  color,  not 
its  form ;  but  something  more  common,  and  yet 
more  precious :  beauty  and  fragrance,  a  gospel 
for  all  men.    And  here  is  a  young  man  fresh 

94 


The  Heart  of  the  Vision 

from  the  schools  with  his  medal,  his  diploma, 
his  degree.  What  can  he  do  with  them  ?  Can 
he  take  the  medal  and  pierce  it  through  and 
through  with  his  personal  force  till  he  has 
personalized  it? — transmuted  it  into  coin  that 
enriches  the  souls  of  men  ?  Can  he  rise  to  the 
level  of  a  prince  and  strew  his  way  with  the 
largess  of  personal  powers  ? 

Then  what  of  his  diploma,  this  dusty  old 
parchment!  Can  he  take  this  document  and 
make  it  live  again,  as  the  genius  takes  some 
ancient  tale  and  breathes  into  it  new  life^ — 
weaves  his  personality  through  and  through  it 
till  it  throbs  with  an  undying  power?  Can  he 
take  this  dry  parchment  and  weave  his  person- 
ality through  and  through  it — make  it  tell  the 
great  story  of  the  cross  ? 

Then  he  has  been  graduated  to  a  certain  de- 
gree. He  has  been  graduated ;  now  as  he  steps 
down  into  the  world  what  is  to  be  his  gradua- 
ting power,  his  personal  force  ?  Will  he  be  able 
to  graduate  bootblacks,  newsboys,  and  street 
arabs  into  manhood  ?  Will  he  have  the  power 
to  graduate  the  hopeless  into  hope,  the  weak 
into  strength,  the  foolish  into  wisdom,  and  the 
bad  into  good  ? 

What  is  his  personal  force?  This  is  the 
95 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

supreme  question  of  life,  that  which  makes  the 
difference  between  success  and  failure.  This  is 
the  supreme  factor  in  the  nation's  life,  that  by 
which  she  rises  into  divine  vigor.  This  is  the 
supreme  factor  in  human  history,  that  by  which 
she  climbs  the  rugged  heights  of  progress. 

The  woman  of  Samaria  came  to  the  well  a 
mere  drawer  of  water.  She  went  out  from  the 
presence  of  Christ  an  exhaustless  fountain 
springing  up  into  everlasting  life.  It  is  on  the 
flood  tide  of  personalities  that  history  is  lifted 
through  the  ages. 

96 


HISTORY 
TKe  Hiss  of  Destiny 


(7) 


"Once  to  every  man  and  nation  comes  a  moment  to 
decide." — Lowell. 

"But  the  unit  of  the  visit, 

The  encounter  of  the  wise — 
Say  what  other  meter  is  it 

Than  the  meeting  of  the  eyes?" 

— Emerson. 

"History  is  the  essence  of  innumerable  biographies." 
— Carlyle. 


THE  KISS  OF  DESTINY 

"  Kiss  the  Son." — Psa.  ii,  12. 

This  psalm  is  a  temple  of  history  built  by  the 
genius  of  a  poet;  just  such  a  temple  as  such  a 
genius  could  build  out  of  any  modern  city. 

In  the  outer  court  the  human  is  rampant, 
scheming,  jostling,  urging,  building  its  splen- 
did vanities;  while  in  the  very  midst  of  the 
surging  crowd,  like  a  seething  volcano,  human 
passion  chafes  against  every  divine  restraint. 
The  wild  human  cry  rises  above  the  uproar  of 
the  jostling  crowd :  *'Let  us  break  their  bands 
asunder." 

Pass  through  this  outer  court  into  the  next 
and  the  scene  is  changed.  The  tumult  of  the 
human  gives  place  to  the  calm  of  God.  There 
is  a  throne,  there  is  order,  there  is  life.  On  the 
throne  is  a  King,  and  on  his  lips  an  edict :  "Ask 
of  me,  and  I  will  give  you  the  nations" — God 
giving  the  world  to  his  Son. 

In  the  outer  court  all  is  confusion,  all  is  fer- 
mentation. In  the  inner  court  the  builders  are 
at  work,  the  structure  is  growing. 

But  there  is  yet  another  court,  still  m.ore  in- 
terior, throbbing  with  the  life  and  love  and 
99 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

beauty  of  the  Son  of  God;  life's  holy  of  holies, 
where  the  whole  destiny  of  man  is  reduced  to 
one  sentence:  "Kiss  the  Son."  ''Give  your 
allegiance  to  him."  All  life,  all  history,  hangs 
upon  this  individual  act. 

In  the  outer  court  we  get  such  a  view  as  we 
would  get  were  we  to  lift  the  roofs  and  look 
down  into  some  modern  hells.  Indeed,  we  need 
not  go  so  deep,  for  what  seems  a  maddening 
maze  has  much  human  method  underneath. 

Suppose  we  lift  the  roof  from  the  political 
wigwam,  the  senate  chamber,  and  the  market 
place;  from  the  council  chamber  of  kings  and 
theologians  and  thinkers.  We  shall  find  at 
least  no  placid  lake.  True,  we  are  in  the  pres- 
ence of  thought.  The  kings  are  taking  council, 
the  people  are  meditating,  but  the  product  is 
vanity. 

What  an  amount  of  thinking,  scheming, 
planning,  we  do,  all  the  way  from  kings  down 
to  peasants !  What  brains  we  wear  out !  What 
logic  we  weary  in  concocting  systems  that  burst 
like  a  bubble!  If  the  time  we  spend  in  schem- 
ing vanities  were  taken  from  our  life  what 
would  be  left  ? 

We  work  and  dig  and  delve  and  twist  like  the 
old  deacon  at  his  "one  boss  shay"  that  was  to 

100 


The  Kiss  of  Destiny 

last  forever.  For,  he  said,  since  things  break  in 
the  weakest  spot,  make  one  part  as  strong  as  the 
other  and  it  never  can  break.  For  logic  is  logic. 
And  behold  it  went  down  in  a  lump,  broke  like 
a  bubble. 

So  men  have  wrought  at  many  a  ''shay" — 
creeds,  doctrines,  systems.  They  have  put  in 
their  lifeblood,  gone  to  the  stake;  made  them 
to  last  forever — eternal,  they  call  them.  Yet 
we  won't  have  them  to-day.  They  are  stowed 
in  the  lumber  room  of  modern  thought.  ''Our 
little  systems  have  their  day." 

Still,  there  is  a  value  in  all  this  vanity  build- 
ing. The  blowing  of  a  bubble  expands  the 
lungs,  and  the  lungs  are  worth  more  than  the 
bubble.  And  the  blowing  of  intellectual  bubbles 
expands  the  brain,  yes,  the  soul,  and  that  is  the 
main  thing.    For  men  are  more  than  systems. 

There  is  much  in  the  old  man's  reply  in  Alice 
in  Wonderland.  When  asked  how  he  could 
manage  to  eat  such  hard  things  considering 
his  age — 

"  'In  my  youth/  said  the  father, 
'I  took  to  the  law, 
And  argued  each  case  with  my  wife, 
And  the  muscular  strength  it  gave  to  my  jaw 
Has  lasted  the  rest  of  my  life.'  " 
lOI 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

The  spiritual  strength  that  has  come  to  the 
soul,  the  larger  man,  that  is  the  supreme  value. 
Yet  every  human  system  takes  us  a  certain  dis- 
tance. We  must  have  them,  though  they  are 
not  through  lines.  The  only  through  line  is  the 
great  living  way  of  God. 

But  in  this  outer  court  there  is  another  voice 
not  from  the  council  chamber  but  from  the 
mob :  "Let  us  break  their  bands."  This  is  the 
revolt  of  passions,  the  vortex  of  democracy. 

We  believe  in  our  democratic  creeds,  yet  it 
takes  much  faith  to  stand  the  strain.  What  a 
seething  world  lies  about  us !  What  a  breaking 
of  cords !  New  wine  breaking  the  old  bottles, 
poor  wine  too. 

''Laisses  faire"  is  the  cry.  Forms  are  broken, 
boundaries  ignored,  rights  overrun.  Things 
are  dissolved  in  the  fervent  heat  of  the  times. 
Life  is  trying  its  latent  energies  with  every 
latest  fad.  No  book,  no  day,  no  ancient  law  is 
strong  enough  to  hold,  curb,  control  this  mod- 
ern giant  of  democracy.  So  it  seems,  at  least. 
And  it  would  be  folly  to  attempt  an  immediate 
special,  far-reaching  remedy;  to  say  what  ought 
to  be  done  to  put  the  world  soberly  on  its  feet; 
to  suggest  some  coup  d'etat. 

We  simply  look  out  upon  a  scene  of  fer- 

102 


The  Kiss  of  Destiny 

mentation.  We  must  take  it  as  it  is.  But  if 
fermentation  be  the  true  word  we  are  most 
fortunate;  for  if  the  world  be  in  a  ferment 
something  must  be  brewing.  What  is  it? 
What  is  brewing  below  the  surface?  What 
shall  we  find  in  the  inner  court  ? 

This  psalm  is  no  mere  poem.  The  author 
goes  deeper  than  the  surface.  He  commands 
the  X-rays  of  inspiration  and  pierces  the 
troubled  exterior.  He  brings  us  into  the  pres- 
ence of  a  throne.  God's  throne  is  out  of  sight, 
beneath  the  people,  for  he  would  make  every 
man  king.  His  empire  is  ruled  from  the  deep 
and  silent  heart  of  things.  His  courtiers,  his 
couriers,  his  armies  wear  an  invisible  livery. 
The  world  has  a  trumpet  voice,  God  speaks  in 
whispers.  Crime  cries  itself  hoarse,  goodness 
works  with  its  mouth  shut.  The  news,  the 
strange,  the  abnormal,  makes  much  ado  speed- 
ing its  telegraphic  way  through  the  world.  But 
the  good  news  is  dispatched  through  the  invisi- 
ble telegraphy  of  God. 

God's  builders  are  out  of  sight.  God's  throne 
is  at  the  heart  of  the  wild  world.  On  it  sits  his 
Son,  and  to  him  he  is  slowly  giving  the  nations. 
"He  shall  break  them  like  a  potter's  vessel." 
The  old  vessels  that  held  the  vanities  and  pas- 
103 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

sions  of  earth,  vessels  of  wrath — these  are 
being  broken  and  shaped  again  on  the  wheel  of 
God  for  truth  divine  and  the  passion  of  the 
cross. 

But  to  enter  more  closely  into  the  divine 
council.  We  have  seen  how  our  thought  struc- 
tures collapse.  This  is  equally  true  of  all 
human  structures:  families,  tribes,  castes,  na- 
tions. No  human  art  or  artifice  can  save  them 
from  the  inevitable. 

The  decay  of  the  favored  classes  in  all  ages  is 
one  of  the  facts  of  history.  And  the  philosopher 
who  once  sought  the  elixir  of  life  for  the  indi- 
vidual is  to-day  seeking  the  same  elixir  for  the 
clan,  class,  or  race.  Why  those  upon  whom  the 
greatest  advantages  have  been  bestowed  should 
decline  is  the  problem.  The  best  and  most  com- 
prehensive answer  given  is  perhaps  this :  'That 
man  is  made  for  progress  through  struggle. 
When,  therefore,  the  object  for  which  we  strive 
is  attained,  when  the  top  is  reached,  when  the 
boundary  of  social  distinction  is  touched,  when 
we  have  reached  the  ranks  of  the  most  favored 
and  cease  to  struggle,  then  we  begin  to  recede, 
decay,  perish."  What,  therefore,  we  need  is 
some  condition  that  will  put  us  under  the  strain 
of  an  immortal  strife. 

104 


The  Kiss  of  Destiny 

Now,  when  the  Son  sets  his  throne  down  in 
the  world  such  a  struggle  begins,  a  new  strug- 
gle. Take  our  own  life :  we  came  to  him  striv- 
ing to  find  something,  to  get  something;  we 
found  him,  when,  behold,  the  struggle  is  re- 
versed. Now  the  effort  is  to  give,  to  speak,  to 
express.  We  came  to  draw  water  from  the 
well;  the  struggle  was  to  bring  it  from  the  cool, 
living  depths.  Now  we  go  out  a  well  in  our- 
self,  striving  to  give — ''a  fountain  springing  up 
unto  everlasting  life."  We  come  with  the 
human  want,  we  go  forth  with  the  divine 
fullness. 

Henceforth  we  are  under  the  law  of  supply 
and  demand.  We  hear  again  and  again  from 
the  divine-human  traveler,  ''Give  me  to  drink." 
This,  on  every  side,  is  the  cry  of  our  eager, 
restless,  wayward  humanity,  "Give  me  to 
drink."  This  is  the  cry  of  the  soul,  with  its 
myriad  wants.  Give  what?  Give  all  you  are, 
the  best  you  are.  Give  books,  give  art,  give 
knowledge,  give  conditions,  give  life,  give  God. 
The  demand  is  immortal,  and  so  is  the  supply. 
The  struggle  is  divine,  is  altruistic. 

A  recent  writer  has  said  that  all  human  prog- 
ress is  made  by  a  constant  replenishing  from  a 
fund  of  altniistic  feeling.  This  is  very  true, 
105 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

but  where  is  the  fund  deposited?  Have  we 
access  to  the  bank  ?  On  this  question  philoso- 
phy is  vague,  but  our  psalm  is  definite.  "Kiss 
the  Son."  Give  him  your  allegiance.  History 
in  its  last  analysis  is  individual.  A  world  of 
men,  of  free  moral  agents,  must  always  move 
by  units.  "Kiss  the  Son."  All  the  world  re- 
volves around  this  personal  center.  Here  is  the 
depository  of  the  altruistic  feeling  by  which 
the  world  moves. 

Without  depreciating  questions  of  national 
breadth  with  which  the  air  is  always  charged — 
questions  great  and  grave — let  us  not  forget 
that  this  one  question  is  world-wide,  is  uni- 
versal; that  upon  it  hinges  all  human  progress 
— this  individual  relation  of  man  to  the  supreme 
Hero  of  human  destiny. 

No  clan,  class,  or  nation  can  ever  be  saved  by 
a  readjustment  of  social  conditions.  No  meas- 
uring up  to  the  conventional  standards  about 
us  is  sufficient.  The  call  is  to  heroism,  nothing 
less.  "Not  conformed  to  this  world,  but  trans- 
formed by  the  renewing,"  the  divine  renewing. 

If,  as  social  students  tell  us,  the  aristocracy 
of  Europe,  or,  indeed,  of  any  other  country, 
be  decaying,  this,  and  this  alone,  is  the  elixir 
with  which  to  restore  their  depleted  life. 
io6 


The  Kiss  of  Destiny 

When  a  man  kisses  the  Son,  when  there  is 
an  interchange  of  eyes,  an  interflow  of  soul,  a 
hero  is  born.  He  is  stung  with  a  divine  am- 
bition— the  ambition  to  give  himself,  to  pour 
out  his  life.  The  immortal  possibility  of  a 
personality  is  open  to  the  world.  This  is  the 
world's  true  leadership. 

*'Kiss  the  Son."  This  in  the  present  tense. 
Now  is  the  crisis  of  life.  This  is  forever  true. 
The  greatest  mistake  of  our  thinking  has  al- 
ways been  to  put  God  too  far  back,  leaving  the 
world  a  sort  of  cosmic  machine  grinding  out 
its  mechanical  career;  or  else  to  put  God  too 
far  forward,  leaving  the  world  a  sort  of  chaotic 
concourse  striving  in  vain  to  overtake  its 
Maker. 

Missing  the  present  God  has  always  been 
the  failure  of  life.  This  was  the  failure  of 
the  Hebrew  people.  On  that  memorable  day, 
that  looked  so  like  other  days,  yet  was  full  of 
God,  as  he  walked  in  their  midst  they  were 
still  saying,  *'God  has  been  here,  and  he 
will  come  again."  But  they  failed,  utterly 
failed,  to  grasp  the  great  fact  of  his  presence 
here  and  now. 

"And  the  choice  went  by  forever 
'Twixt  the  darkness  and  that  light." 
107 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

Have  we  not  learned  from  the  whole  teach- 
ing of  Revelation,  now  so  strongly  reaffirmed 
by  science,  that  we  are  walking  in  a  world  over- 
flowing with  God?  that  every  moment,  every 
hour,  every  day  is  flooded  with  the  divine  Pres- 
ence ?  and  that  this  is  the  real  "tide  which,  taken 
at  its  flood,"  leads  on  to  destiny?  Therefore, 
"Kiss  the  Son."  "To-day,  if  ye  will  hear  his 
voice."  If  the  heroic  call  has  come  awake,  arise, 
go  forth,  for  it  is  the  voice  of  the  divine  Hero. 
1 08 


LIFE 
The  Voices 


"Like  an  ^olian  harp  that  wakes 

No  certain  air,  but  overtakes 

Far  thought  with  music  that  it  makes : 

"Such  seemed  the  whisper  at  my  side : 
'What  is  it  thou  knowest,  sweet  voice?'  1  cried, 
*A  hidden  hope,'  the  voice  replied, 

"So  heavenly-toned,  that  in  that  hour 
From  out  my  sullen  heart  a  power 
Broke,  like  the  rainbow  from  the  shower, 

"To  feel,  although  no  tongue  can  prove. 
That  every  cloud,  that  spreads  above 
And  veileth  love,  itself  is  love." 

"A  still  small  voice  spake  unto  me, 
'Thou  art  so  full  of  misery, 
Were  it  not  better  not  to  be?' 

"Then  to  the  still  small  voice  I  said: 
'Let  me  not  cast  in  endless  shade 
What  is  so  wonderfully  made. 

"  'Whatever  crazy  sorrow  saith. 

No  life  that  breathes  with  human  breath 

Has  ever  truly  longed  for  death. 

'Tis  life  whereof  our  nerves  are  scant — 
O  life,  not  death,  for  which  we  pant ; 
More  life  and  fuller,  that  I  want.' 

"A  second  voice  was  at  mine  ear, 

A  little  whimper  silver-clear, 

A  murmur,  'Be  of  better  cheer.'  " 


THE  VOICES 

'•  The  voice  of  him  that  crieth  in  the  wilderness." — Isa.  xl,  3. 

For  many  years  the  literary  merit  as  well 
as  spiritual  power  of  these  Isaiahan  chapters, 
from  the  fortieth  on,  has  been  steadily  growing 
upon  the  minds  of  readers.  A  quarter  of 
a  century  ago  Matthew  Arnold  put  them  into 
book  form,  following  the  authorized  text, 
with  a  very  strongly  appreciative  preface. 
Led  on  by  the  literary  charm,  he  found 
his  way  into  the  deeper  spiritual  significance 
of  the  scripture. 

It  is  always  the  mission  of  literature  to  carry 
a  message  of  life,  a  message  for  the  heart.  This 
whole  scripture  is  a  message  from  the  heart  of 
God  to  the  heart  of  man.  Indeed,  the  passage 
generally  translated,  ''Speak  ye  comfortably  to 
Jerusalem,"  is  better  rendered,  "Speak  ye  to 
the  heart  of  Jerusalem." 

Science  and  philosophy  have  no  heart  mes- 
sage. It  takes  literature  to  reach  the  heart. 
For  literature  is  born  of  the  heart.  It  utters  the 
unutterable.  It  is  the  outburst  of  personality. 
When  literature  adopts  the  finer,  subtler  forms 
of  expression  it  is  no  affectation,  but  a  serious 
III 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

attempt  to  get  from  one  heart  to  another;  to 
utter  the  highest,  hoHest  truth  of  the  soul. 

It  is  hard  to  express  the  deepest  things  in 
us.  Lyman  Beecher  used  to  say,  "li  I  could 
play  all  that  I  hear  inside  of  me  I  could  beat 
Paganini."  And  again,  ''I  am  sick  because 
I  cannot  reveal  the  feelings  of  my  heart." 
Great  souls  speak  from  compulsion.  They 
speak  under  pressure  of  the  heart,  and  from 
the  heart  to  the  heart. 

"When  some  wild  emotion 
Strikes  the  ocean 
Of  the  poet's  soul,  ere  long 
From  each  rocky  cave  and  fastness 
In  its  vastness 
Floats  the  fragment  of  a  song." 

And  this  Bible,  the  literature  of  God,  the  out- 
flow of  the  divine  personality,  clad  in  every 
possible  form,  rushes  with  spiritual  power  from 
the  heart  of  God  to  the  heart  of  man — from 
heart  to  heart.  Here  in  these  chapters  of 
Isaiah,  where  the  spirit  of  God  burns  into  a 
flame  of  redeeming  love,  it  naturally  takes  on 
its  noblest  literary  form.  Every  art  of  expres- 
sion lends  itself  to  the  divine  purpose.  Rhap- 
sody and  drama,  poetry  and  pleading,  oratory 
and  argument,  blending  in  spiritual  unity  and 

112 


The  Voices 

purpose,  press  into  the  heart  of  man  with  life — 
Hfe  larger,  nobler,  diviner. 

There  is  first  the  voice  scene.  Voices  are 
speeding  across  the  desert.  Life,  real  life,  that 
begins  where  mere  existence  leaves  off,  begins 
with  a  voice;  not  a  word  well  defined  and 
elaborated  into  a  creed,  but  just  a  voice — some 
one  calling,  we  hardly  know  as  yet  whither. 
All  great  lives  have  heard  voices — Moses  and 
Abraham.,  Samuel  and  Isaiah,  John,  Luther, 
and  Mazzini. 

The  voice  of  life  may  at  least  be  defined  thus 
far :  It  calls  us  to  be  something,  or,  better,  some 
one;  to  distinguish  or  differentiate  ourselves; 
to  come  out  and  be  separate ;  to  be  more  than  a 
conventional  automaton;  to  be  ourself;  to  be 
something  that  is  I,  and  not  a  part  of  the 
crowd;  to  be  an  individual.  This  ambition 
prompts  the  small  boy  to  show  off;  to  differ- 
entiate himself  from  the  company;  the  young 
fellows  to  break  over  conventional  boundaries 
and  shock  people;  and  literary  geniuses  some- 
times to  revolt  against  the  existing  order  of 
things. 

There  is,  however,  a  true  distinction,  a  true 
individualizing  of  life.  It  is  not  by  doing  some- 
thing eccentric,  not  by  shocking  the  world,  nor 
(8)  ^13 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

by  revolting  against  the  existing  order;  not  to 
be  different,  but  better;  not  in  a  new  species, 
but  an  improvement  on  the  old,  carrying  life  a 
step  further  along  the  main  way.  "Prepare  ye 
the  way  of  the  Lord :"  that  man  away  ahead 
cutting  out  the  brush,  picking  out  the  stones, 
leveling  down  the  mountains,  filling  up  the 
valleys,  turning  the  wilderness  of  man  into  the 
highway  of  God. 

This  is  the  true  call,  the  real  distinction  of 
life — glorifying  the  commonplaces.  Some 
books  we  love,  not  because  the  author  has  done 
something  strange,  wild,  eccentric,  but  because 
he  has  taken  us  into  some  commonplace  home 
of  poverty  and  through  the  dull  light  and  tear- 
stained  faces  has  revealed  the  glory  of  a  human 
heart  lit  with  the  light  of  God.  He  glorifies 
the  commonplaces.  He  is  on  ahead.  This  is 
true  distinction,  real  individuality. 

Moses  distinguished  himself  by  going  on 
ahead  of  his  people.  Sometimes  they  did  not 
know  where  he  was.  He  was  quite  out  of  sight. 
He,  too,  glorified  the  commonplaces  with  those 
great  first  principles  of  life,  preparing  the  way 
of  God. 

Sometimes  true  distinction  becomes  degen- 
erate.    A  man  distinguishes  himself,  and  his 

IT4 


The  Voices 

grandchildren  are  content  to  rest  upon  his 
laurels.  This  is  the  birth  of  caste.  Spirit  gives 
place  to  form.  Abraham  rose  far  above  his  age 
in  fellowship  with  God.  But  the  best  his 
descendants  could  say  for  themselves  was  that 
they  were  his  children. 

Moses  discovered  the  first  principles  of  life, 
but  how  soon  they  were  turned  for  caste  pur- 
poses into  a  thousand  petty  rules !  Every  true 
revival  is  a  passing  on  into  spiritual  distinction. 
Afterward  comes  the  period  of  rules,  religious 
castes,  ecclesiastical  machinery.  These  two 
phases  of  life  are  forever  at  loggerheads. 
Throughout  the  Bible  they  run  counter:  life 
sliding  down  into  caste,  petty,  narrow,  cruel; 
and  life  struggling  upward,  strong,  broad, 
spiritual. 

What  a  picture  of  these  counter  currents  we 
have  in  Job's  life!  Around  him  are  his  con- 
ventional ultra-orthodox  friends,  wiser  than 
the  Almighty.  They  weigh  the  man  in  their 
little  scales  of  human  logic  as  they  talk  of  what 
ought  to  be,  what  must  be,  and  what  cannot  be. 
Meantime  Job  Is  struggling,  groping,  living  his 
way,  following  the  voices  beyond  all  boundaries 
and  conclusions,  till  out  of  sight  of  his  friends 
on  the  unseen  heights  of  God  he  finally  cries, 
115 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

"1  know  that  my  Redeemer  liveth."  This  is 
the  outburst  of  spiritual  experience,  the  shout 
of  victory,  the  thrill  of  individual  life. 

But  life  is  not  under  the  simple  sway  of  one 
clear  voice.  There  are  many  voices — many  and 
discordant.  We  have  to  find  our  way  through 
the  voices.  One  voice  is  heard  calling  across 
the  desert  to  another,  saying,  "Take  up  the 
message  and  carry,  it  forward.  Cry !"  But  the 
other  voice  calls  back,  'What  shall  I  cry? 
What  is  the  use  of  crying?"  "The  grass 
withereth,  the  flower  fadeth;  and  the  people 
are  grass.*' 

This  is  the  voice  of  despair.  We  rush  down 
into  the  world  to  the  blooming  flower.  "A 
thing  of  beauty  is  a  joy  forever."  Nay;  we 
pluck  it,  and,  behold,  to-morrow  it  is  faded  and 
gone.    Such  is  life. 

"The  melancholy  days  are  come,  the  saddest  of  the  year, 
Of   wailing   winds,    and   naked    woods,    and    meadows 

brown  and  sear. 
Heaped  in  the  hollows  of  the  grove,  the  autumn  leaves 

lie  dead; 
They   rustle  to   the  eddying  gust  and  to   the   rabbit's 

tread." 

The   poets   are   prone   to   these   pessimistic 
moods.    Shelley,  Schiller,  and  Byron  have  sung 
this  despair.    They  have  answered  back  to  the 
ii6 


The  Voices 

voice  of  hope,  "What  shall  we  cry  ? — the  grass 
withereth,  the  flower  fadeth." 

We  have  tried  to  escape  this  pessimistic 
voice  in  two  directions.  One  has  been  to 
plunge  into  the  world.  *'Eat,  drink,  for  to- 
morrow you  die."  Make  the  most  of  the  world 
while  it  is  going,  which  is  not  always  making 
the  best  of  it.  The  other  is  to  turn  away  from 
the  fading,  disappointing  world :  to  lose  sight 
of  this  world,  to  despise  it;  to  live  in  the 
thought  of  another  world.  Both  are  fruitless 
and  false  ways  to  escape. 

But  there  is  another  way.  The  voice  of 
despair  dies  out,  and  another  voice  takes  up  the 
cry.  Yes,  he  repeats,  'The  grass  withereth,  the 
flower  fadeth,  but  the  word  of  our  God  shall 
stand  forever." 

There  is  something  that  never  fades,  never 

withers — the  word  of  God.    Where  is  it?    Not 

in  some  other  world,  but  in  this.     Go  back  to 

the   flower:   there   is   something  even  in  the 

flower  that  never  dies. 

"To  me  the  meanest  flower  that  blows  can  give 
Thoughts  that  do  often  lie  too  deep  for  tears." 

The  flower  may  fade,  but  its  message  will  live 
forever. 

Men  are  not  doubters,  despairers,  because 
117 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

they  think  deeply,  but  because  they  do  not  think 
deeply  enough.  They  do  not  get  through  to 
the  sap,  the  heart,  where  the  eternals  live  and 
flow.  They  stop  in  the  foliage,  and  the  foliage 
withers  and  dies.  The  wisest  thinking  is  just 
the  art  of  connecting  the  foliage  with  the  per- 
ennial sap  of  eternity. 

The  word  of  God  is  in  the  flower,  yes,  in  the 
grass,  in  all  the  commonplaces  of  life,  if  we  can 
but  find  it.  The  sheep  gets  the  best  out  of  the 
grass  by  nipping  it,  but  we  do  not.  It  is  not 
by  ownership,  but  by  fellowship,  that  we  get 
the  best  things  of  life.  We  must  linger  around 
and  listen  for  the  word.  Not  by  owning  the 
flowers,  but  by  associating  with  them.  If  we 
have  lost  faith  in  men  it  may  be  because  we 
have  tried  to  pluck  them,  possess  them,  rather 
than  associate  with  them,  listening  for  the 
divine  message  they  bring,  consciously  or  un- 
consciously. It  is  not  necessary  to  be  million- 
aires, but  woe  to  the  man  who  ceases  to  be  a 
fellow. 

"All  things  must  die: 
The  stream  will  cease  to  flow; 
The  wind  will  cease  to  blow ; 
The  clouds  will  cease  to  fleet; 
The  heart  will  cease  to  beat; 
For  all  things  must  die." 
ii8 


The  Voices 

Yet  dying,  like  Christ  on  Calvary,  they  leave 
behind  their  message  from  God.  You  will  re- 
member how  ''Blue  Bird"  was  reclaimed  from 
her  reckless  life  to  God  and  his  service  by  a 
flower  thrust  into  her  hand  by  a  woman.  It 
faded,  but  in  dying  spoke — spoke  to  her  heart, 
''gave  thoughts  that  lie  too  deep  for  tears." 

But  another  voice  is  now  heard,  a  voice  that 
grows  wild  with  enthusiasm,  calling  upon  Zion 
to  take  up  the  message:  "O  Jerusalem,  that 
bringest  good  tidings,  lift  up  thy  voice  with 
strength;  lift  it  up,  be  not  afraid;  say  unto  the 
cities  of  Judah,  Behold  your  God !" 

"Behold  your  God!"  Here  is  something 
even  better  than  the  "word."  It  is  God  him- 
self; the  gospel  of  the  Presence — richer  than  all 
words.    There  is  a  gospel  of  the  Presence. 

This  man  speaks  fluently  and  logically.  We 
listen  with  admiration,  and  wonder  if  it  is  true. 
This  other  man  seems  a  pauper  in  words,  but 
he  comes  to  us  with  a  presence  that  convinces 
at  sight.  He  speaks  with  authority.  This  phi- 
losopher whom  we  sought  In  our  trouble  mud- 
dled us  with  his  wisdom.  This  wise  man  who 
said  almost  nothing  but  seemed  to  bring  our 
tangle  Into  the  light  of  his  presence  sent  us  out 
a  clearer-headed  and  stronger-hearted  man, 
119 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

It  is  the  Presence  that  saves — the  real  Pres- 
ence. The  Bible  is  not  simply  a  message  from 
God,  but  a  revelation  of  God.  It  takes  us  into 
his  presence,  deeper  and  deeper.  It  is  not  the 
word  simply,  clear-cut,  cold,  lifeless.  It  is  the 
word  while  he  is  yet  speaking;  his  breath,  his 
life,  his  Spirit  is  in  it.  This  is  the  life  power 
of  the  book. 

We  live  deeper  than  flowers,  deeper  than 
words — we  live  in  experiences;  in  the  secret 
places  of  life  beyond  the  word — deeper,  much 
deeper,  where  speech  removes  its  shoes  for  rev- 
erence and  thought  hangs  furled;  where  the 
mother  waits,  where  the  father  prays,  where  the 
young  man  finds  the  meaning  of  his  soul  and 
girds  himself  for  life — in  the  presence  of  God. 

This  is  the  democracy,  this  the  liberty,  this 
the  range  of  life — that  it  is  rooted  in  an  experi- 
ence. It  is  an  experience  between  two  persons, 
God  and  me.    This  is  life. 

"All  I  know  of  a  certain  star 

Is,  it  can  throw  (like  an  angled  spar) 

Now  a  dart  of  red,  now  a  dart  of  blue ; 

Till  my  friends  have  said  they  would  fain  see,  too, 

My  star  that  dartles  the  red  and  the  blue ! 

Then  it  stopped  like  a  bird ;  like  a  flower  hangs  furled : 

They  must  solace  themselves  with  the  Saturn  above  it. 

What  matter  to  me  if  their  star  is  a  world? 

Mine  has  opened  its  soul  to  me,  therefore  I  love  it." 

I20 


LIFE 
TKe  Mission 


"Life  is  not  an  idle  ore, 
But  iron  dug  from  central  gloom 
And  heated  hot  with  burning  fears, 
And  dipped  in  baths  of  hissing  tears, 
And  battered  with  the  shocks  of  doom, 
To  shape  and  use." — Tennyson. 

"Be  sure  that  God 
Ne'er  dooms  to  waste  the  strength  he  deigns  impart." 

— Browning. 

"God  is  the  author,  men  are  only  the  players.  These 
grand  pieces  which  are  played  upon  earth  have  been 
composed  in  heaven." — Bahac. 


THE  MISSION 

"  But  they  that  wait  upon  the  Lord  shall  renew  their  strength  ;  they 
shall  mount  up  with  wings  as  eagles  ;  they  shall  run,  and  not  be  weary  ; 
and  they  shall  walk,  and  not  faint." — Isa.  xl,  31. 

The  voices  left  us  in  the  presence  of  God — 
life  an  experience.  The  evolution  of  this  ex- 
perience into  life's  mission  occupies  the  suc- 
ceeding chapters.  True,  there  is  an  almost  per- 
plexing variety  of  thought,  form,  and  action 
flashing  from  this  scripture,  yet  through  it  all 
may  be  traced  the  unfolding  of  one  purpose. 

The  voices  were  idealistic;  these  chapters  are 
realistic.  We  have  passed  from  the  idyllic 
shepherd  scene  into  the  heart  of  a  great  city. 
Getting  out  of  Babylon  is  the  problem;  not  a 
problem  in  history,  but  in  life.  There  is  history 
in  it.  Cyrus  is  matched  against  Babylon. 
There  is  the  clash  of  arms,  and  the  city  falls. 
But,  strange  to  say,  there  arises  above  the  con- 
quered city  not  the  form  of  Cyrus,  but  of  Israel 
— a  new  Israel  waking  and  rising  slowly  to  the 
great  purpose  of  God  and  the  great  mission  of 
life. 

It  is  more  than  a  rescue.  We  sometimes  stop 
with  that  idea  of  salvation,  but  God  never  does. 
Israel  was  a  wreck,  but  God  treats  her  rather  as 
123 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

a  magnificent  possibility.  This  is  his  treatment 
of  all  human  wrecks;  he  never  forgets  that  he  is 
preeminently  a  builder  and  maker  of  men.  The 
brand  plucked  from  the  burning  never  tells  the 
whole  story  of  salvation.  Longfellow  has  a 
little  poem  of  an  artist  who,  sitting  one  day  by 
the  fire,  snatched  a  brand  from  the  hearth,  then 
finally  carved  it  into  a  work  of  art.  God 
plucked  Israel  from  the  burning — to  carve,  to 
bring  out  the  true  life,  the  divine  purpose,  the 
likeness  of  God,  that  God  through  him  might 
"break  into  glory."  And  this  work,  this  fine 
art  of  God,  is  what  we  have  in  these  chapters 
of  Isaiah,  wrought  out  through  his  presence — 
the  thought  of  this  passage — "They  that  wait 
upon  the  Lord." 

It  was  an  awful  change  for  those  people  to 
be  taken  up  from  the  simple  shepherd  life  and 
dropped  into  the  heart  of  the  world's  civiliza- 
tion. A  boy  taken  from  a  country  home  and 
dropped  into  a  city  realizes  for  the  first  time 
how  big  the  world  is,  how  overwhelming  is 
man — these  streets  throbbing  with  commerce, 
these  buildings  shutting  out  the  sky,  this  whir 
of  factories,  this  babel  of  voices.  Why!  God 
in  the  country  hardly  seems  equal  to  man  in  the 
city.  He  feels,  like  the  Israelite,  that  his  ways 
124 


The  Mission 

are  hidden  from  the  God  of  the  old  meeting- 
house on  the  hill — that  God  has  lost  track  of 
him. 

And  we  are  always  passing  through  this  ex- 
perience. We  are  being  dropped  from  an  age 
of  simplicity  into  an  age  of  complexity  and  per- 
plexity— from  the  little  province  into  the 
metropolis;  from  the  hill  country  into  Babylon. 
Suddenly  the  world  is  upon  us  so  big,  so  ruth- 
less, so  irreverent.  Science  has  pushed  the  old 
boundaries  in  upon  the  country  of  God.  Com- 
merce has  run  her  tracks  through  the  ancient 
sanctuaries.  The  world  is  rushing  on  with 
such  speed  that  we  have  no  chance  to  ''possess 
our  souls  in  patience."  We  are  caught  in  the 
whirl  of  thought,  in  the  torrent  of  things.  We 
are  being  made  in  spite  of  ourselves — factory- 
made  in  the  mill  of  modern  civilization.  And 
our  soul  is  oozing  from  us  through  hoe  and 
chisel,  through  pen  and  pencil,  through  science, 
commerce,  and  art. 

To  a  people  in  such  straits  came  the  prophet 
with  a  message.  What  was  it?  Just  this: 
Your  world  is  not  too  big,  but  your  idea  of  God 
is  too  little.  The  transcendency  of  God.  You 
have  thought  of  him  as  the  God  of  the  shepherd 
land.  But  let  man  enlarge  his  world,  let  him 
125 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

widen  the  circles  beyond  all  former  thought; 
still  it  is  ''God  who  sitteth  upon  the  last  circle." 

Some  prophets  to-day  take  us  through  the  al- 
most unending  stages  of  evolution,  to  bring  us 
at  last  face  to  face  w^ith  the  Almighty  sitting 
upon  the  ultimate  circle.  All  this  great  new 
land  is  still  God's  country,  not  man's.  And  the 
length  and  breadth  of  it,  and  the  wonderfulness 
of  the  exploration,  have  only  given  us  a  nobler 
idea  of  God.  And  from  this  must  be  born  a 
nobler  idea  of  man. 

When  your  heart  beats  low  from  too  much 
world,  when  you  need  a  heavenly  tonic,  turn  to 
this  fortieth  chapter  of  Isaiah.  The  transcend- 
ency of  God  shines  through  every  word :  ''Hast 
thou  not  known  ?  hast  thou  not  heard,  that  the 
everlasting  God^  the  Lord,  the  Creator  of  the 
ends  of  the  earth,  fainteth  not,  neither  is 
weary?  .  .  .  Hegivethpower  to  the  faint;  and 
to  them  that  have  no  might  he  increaseth 
strength.  Even  the  youths  shall  faint  and  be 
weary,  and  the  young  men  shall  utterly  fall: 
but  they  that  wait  upon  the  Lord  shall  renew 
their  strength;  they  shall  mount  up  with  wings 
as  eagles;  they  shall  run,  and  not  be  weary;  and 
they  shall  walk,  and  not  faint." 

From  the  transcendency  of  God  is  born  the 
126 


The  Mission 

transcendency  of  man.  The  man  who  waits 
upon  God  is  touched  and  tinged  with  the  su- 
premacy of  God.  To  him  the  world  is  the  path- 
way of  the  soul — the  great  highway  of  God 
where  everything  bows  to  the  mastery  of  man, 
where  everything  is  hands  and  feet  and  wings 
for  the  soul.  A  favorite  thought  of  the 
prophet,  this  sovereignty  of  the  soul  that  waits 
upon  God.  The  rivers  cannot  overflow  him. 
For  him  the  trees  break  into  song.  At  his  ap- 
proach the  desert  blossoms  as  a  rose,  and  the 
stagnant  pools  are  turned  into  living  fountains. 

And  even  more  than  this,  along  this  highway 
of  the  soul  not  only  does  the  earth  wait  upon 
God's  courtier,  but  the  heavens  too.  This  is  the 
thought  of  the  prophet.  All  along  the  way  the 
heavens  are  bursting  with  songs.  There  are 
choirs  invisible.  Israel  sings  and  the  watch- 
men on  the  walls  sing.  'The  heavens  are  filled" 
— not  with  commerce,  but  with  song. 

There  is  a  picture  by  Breton,  a  good  supple- 
ment for  "The  Man  with  the  Hoe."  A  peasant 
girl,  bareheaded,  barefooted,  sickle  in  hand,  is 
going  forth  to  her  toil.  Suddenly  a  lark  breaks 
into  song  above  her.  She  stops,  her  head 
thrown  back,  her  lips  apart,  her  face  aglow,  her 
eye  beaming.  For  the  moment  she  has  forgot- 
127 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

ten  the  world,  ''all  time  and  toil  and  care." 
This  is  the  divine  remedy  for  a  material  age, 
for  an  aggressive  world — not  the  entire  aboli- 
tion of  the  hoe  and  the  sickle,  but  more  larks 
above;  not  less  earth,  but  more  sky;  songs  that 
inspire,  ideals  that  lift,  standards  that  are 
divine.  ''They  that  wait  upon  the  Lord  shall 
renew  their  strength." 

But  waiting  upon  God  is  more  than  an  inspi- 
ration; it  is  a  criticism  of  life.  God  is  the  su- 
preme critic.  Life  is  moral;  therefore  is  always 
on  trial,  always  at  the  judgment  bar  of  God. 
Judgment  is  not  simply  a  far-off  event,  it  is  a 
process  forever  going  on.  And  this  very 
thought  runs  through  these  chapters.  The  na- 
tions are  in  the  court  of  God,  are  on  trial  before 
him. 

This  is  the  deepest  current  of  history  in  all 
ages.  It  is  also  the  deepest  current  of  life.  We 
live  by  judgment.  The  soul  through  which  the 
judgments  of  God  are  not  always  sweeping  is 
dead.  We  live  by  the  searching  light  of  God. 
When  you  lift  a  stone  in  the  field  the  beetles 
rush  to  cover,  because  they  love  darkness  rather 
than  light.  So  God  dispels  the  moral  beetles  of 
the  soul  by  pouring  in  the  light,  new  light, 
stronger  and  whiter. 

128 


The  Mission 

Every  day  we  are  called  to  stand  in  some 
new  light.  The  fatal  charge  against  the  Jews 
was  not  that  they  were  false  to  the  old  light,  but 
that  they  would  not  receive  the  new.  This  is 
the  soul's  fatality,  that  the  new  light  comes  and 
we  refuse  the  test,  the  trial.  Real  life,  growing, 
expanding,  is  forever  passing  from  judgment 
hall  to  judgment  hall. 

Then  judgment  is  also  in  events,  the  tests  of 
life.  His  fan  is  in  his  hand,  and  we  are  in  the 
fan.  And  as  the  farmer  tosses  wheat  and  chaff 
into  the  air  to  be  caught  and  separated  by  a 
blast  of  wind,  so  God  tosses  the  soul  in  the  ex- 
periences of  life.  Every  toss  into  prominence 
is  a  test,  a  trial.  A  new  wind  catches  us  and 
there  is  less  chaff.  God  is  looking  for  the 
wheat.  "Bringing  forth  judgment  unto  truth." 
Not  truth  in  the  abstract,  not  a  creed,  but  truth 
in  the  head  and  heart,  in  the  hands  and  feet, 
truth  all  alive. 

So  judgment  sweeps  through  the  soul.  The 
selfish  thought  is  doomed.  The  unholy  purpose 
is  condemned.  The  lust  is  cast  into  hell.  The 
idols  of  earth  perish,  and  the  ideals  of  heaven 
are  born.  Babylon  falls,  and  the  servant  of 
God  rises  in  her  place. 

This  is  election  or  selection  according  to 
(9)  129 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

quality.  We  are  elected  if  we  pass  muster,  if 
we  are  equal  to  the  trial,  if  we  can  stand  the 
test,  if  we  can  measure  up.  But  measure  up  to 
what?  To  the  purpose  of  God  in  us.  This  is 
the  great  appeal  of  life,  the  purpose  of  God 
sweeping  down  through  the  ages.  This  is  the 
logic  of  the  Bible,  this  the  great  theme  of  Paul, 
this  the  awakening  thought  of  our  prophet. 
*7acob,  I  have  called  thee."  "Israel,  I  have 
chosen  thee."  'T  have  taken  hold  of  thee  from 
the  ends  of  the  earth,"  away  back  in  Abraham. 

The  modern  doctrine  of  heredity  is  fore- 
stalled by  the  prophet  and  made  to  serve  a  noble 
end,  to  lift  life  into  larger  meaning.  Life  is  no 
little  circle,  no  side  issue,  no  spider's  web  in  the 
corner  for  purposes  of  spoil.  Life  is  a  succes- 
sion of  princes — that  is,  if  we  grasp  it  as  it  lies 
in  the  purpose  of  God.  We  are  called  to  stand 
in  a  noble  succession.  Grasping  this  thought  is 
life's  power,  failing  it  is  life's  defeat. 

We  are  heirs  if  we  only  knew  it.  One  day  In 
a  western  village  an  old  Indian  was  found  beg- 
ging through  the  streets.  Suspended  from  his 
neck  was  a  charm;  when  opened  it  was  found 
to  contain  a  deed  from  the  government  for  a 
large  tract  of  land.  So  our  life  holds  deeds, 
legacies,  birthrights  that  we  have  never 
130 


The  Mission 

claimed.  We  go  a  begging  when  we  might  be 
princes.  We  are  overwhehned,  overrun, 
swami>ed  by  the  world.  We  live,  yet  not  we, 
but  the  world  liveth  in  us,  when,  were  we  to 
rise  to  the  purpose  of  God  in  us,  to  the  purpose 
of  God  revealed  through  the  Prince  of  Life,  we 
should  pass  from  beggardom  to  princedom. 
We  should  then  rise  to  that  heroic  scripture 
that  brings  the  world  into  homage  to  the  soul : 
''I  live,  yet  not  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me;  and 
the  life  I  now  live,  I  live  by  faith  in  the  Son 
of  God." 

But,  more  definitely,  what  is  the  purpose  of 
God  in  Israel?  What  is  her  mission?  A 
strange  one,  very  strange.  A  mission  of  light : 
"Thou  shalt  be  a  light  to  the  nations."  A  mis- 
sion of  words:  ''Thou  shalt  succor  the  weary 
with  words."  A  mission  of  gentleness:  "A 
bruised  reed  shall  he  not  break."  A  mission  of 
silence:  "He  shall  not  lift  up  his  voice  in  the 
street." 

What  is  all  this  but  the  mission  of  the  soul, 
the  soul  forces — the  mission  of  what  we  are  to 
the  world,  of  what  we  are  poured  forth  in 
words,  deeds,  and  life? 

But  the  practical  question  arises,  how  to 
achieve  this  mission,  how  to  unfold  the  soul, 
131 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

how  to  reveal  ourself.  This  is  really  the  most 
difficult  question  in  life.  We  are  conscious  of 
something  within,  but  it  is  a  mystery;  a  vague 
force  pushing  and  urging,  we  know  not 
whither.  There  is  no  clear-cut  scripture  of 
God's  purpose  within  us. 

We  are  like  a  boy  who  feels  the  life  of  man- 
hood within  him,  restless,  vague,  impetuous, 
and  he  knows  not  what  to  do  with  it.  One  day 
on  a  stagecoach  I  watched  such  a  boy  for  half 
an  hour.  In  that  time  he  ate  some  bananas,  and 
sat  on  some  peaches;  inadvertently  wiped  his 
feet  on  an  old  gentleman  who  sat  near;  swung 
by  a  strap  over  the  wheels  when  we  were  going 
down  hill ;  and  finally  put  on  the  brake  when  we 
were  going  up. 

How  like  the  vague  and  restless  life  of  our 
own  soul !  Active,  but  foolishly  and  disastrously 
active.  The  brakes  on  uphill,  and  off  downhill. 
Active,  but  no  definite  unfolding  of  the  inner 
purpose.  Rather,  a  wasting  of  that  purpose; 
bartering  the  soul  for  success,  selling  thoughts 
for  money,  peddling  conscience  for  fame,  sur- 
rendering character  for  popularity — 'losing 
the  soul  to  gain  the  world." 

The  severest  test  of  life  is,  "To  thine  own 
self  be  true."  Still  the  question  remains,  How  ? 
132 


The  Mission 

How  can  I  be  true  to  my  own  soul  ?  How  can 
I  stand  by  my  own  wares?  How  can  I  have 
faith  in  my  own  powers?  And  the  answer 
comes  again  from  the  passage,  'They  that  wait 
upon  the  Lord." 

The  flower  unfolds  its  divine  purpose  in  the 
presence  of  the  sun,  and  the  soul  in  the  presence 
of  God. 

''God's  plans  like  lilies  pure  and  white  unfold: 
We  must  not  tear  the  close-shut  leaves  apart; 
Time  will  reveal  the  calyxes  of  gold." 

^33 


LIFE 
TKe  Hero 


"Our  own  best  and  noblest  life,   our  own  greatest 
heroism,  interprets  for  us  God's  love." — Abbott. 

"The  very  God!  think,  Abib;  dost  thou  think? 
So  the  All-great  were  the  All-loving,  too — 
So  through  the  thunder  comes  a  human  voice, 
Saying,  'O  heart  I  made,  a  heart  beats  here ! 
Face,  my  hands  fashioned,  see  it  in  myself! 
Thou  hast  no  power,  nor  mayest  conceive  of  mine, 
But  love  I  gave  thee  with  myself  to  love. 
And  thou  must  love  me  who  have  died  for  thee !'  " 

— Browning. 


THE  HERO 

"  Behold,  my  servant  shall  prosper."— Isa.  Hi,  13. 

"He  shall  see  of  the  travail  of  his  soul,  and  shall  be  satisfied."— Isa. 
liii,  II. 

Our  prophet  now  takes  us  still  deeper  into 
the  mysteries  of  life.  In  the  last  chapter  we 
found  life  unfolding  in  God's  presence — un- 
folding God's  purpose  within  us,  the  mission  of 
what  we  are  to  the  world. 

It  was  a  study  of  life  from  the  standpoint  of 
man.  Now  the  prophet  takes  us  within  the  veil 
— to  the  standpoint  of  God,  to  a  revelation  of 
the  mysteries  of  life,  to  the  dynamics  of  the 
soul.  ''My  servant  shall  prosper."  ''He  shall 
see  of  the  travail  of  his  soul,  and  shall  be 
satisfied." 

Life  from  God's  standpoint  is  always  a  mas- 
tery for  higher  ends,  an  incessant  travail  for 
new  and  finer  issues.  The  elements  may  swirl 
around  a  rock  and  pass  on ;  but  when  they  touch 
a  living  tree  they  are  caught  and  held  and 
turned  to  nobler  things.  Earth,  air,  and  dew 
return  in  leaf,  bud,  and  blossom. 

A  brook  may  gather  the  debris  of  a  hundred 
cottages  and  sweep  them  into  an  eddy,  there  to 
play  out  their  meaningless  existence.  But  a  boy 
137 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

will  gather  the  debris  of  one  cottage,  screws, 
nails,  sticks,  etc.,  grasp  them,  turn  upon  them 
the  force  of  his  individuality;  and  return  them 
to  the  world  with  a  new  and  higher  meaning — 
a  miniature  house,  barn,  or  mill.  With  the  boy 
there  is  more  than  a  battle  with  sticks.  There 
is  an  actual  travail  of  soul  to  express  himself 
in  sticks,  screws,  and  nails.  Every  power  of 
the  soul  is  taxed — insight,  sympathy,  will. 
That  little  mill  with  its  wabbling  wheels  could 
tell  a  strange  and  pathetic  story  of  the  travail 
of  a  boy's  soul. 

Or,  again,  there  is  that  piece  of  machinery — 
the  product  of  mature  skill — that  runs  so 
rhythmically  and  silently  that  one  might  think 
it  made  in  heaven  and  dropped  into  this  dis- 
cordant earth.  It,  too,  has  its  story  deeper  than 
the  heart  of  the  mountain,  the  flame  of  the 
forge,  or  the  skill  of  the  workman;  a  story  that 
leads  into  the  depths  of  the  inventor's  soul; 
into  days  and  nights  of  poverty  and  toil,  of 
hardship  and  disappointment,  of  weary  waiting 
and  hard  working;  a  travail  of  soul  known  only 
to  one  man  and  his  God,  as  he  wrestles  with 
principles  that  baffle,  with  steel  that  resists, 
with  ideals  that  elude. 

And  that  snatch  of  the  poet's  song,  that 
138 


The  Hero 

flutters  like  an  angel  into  our  heart,  is  no  handi- 
work of  technique.  It,  too,  is  a  child  of  the 
soul. 

"Let  us,  then,  be  up  and  doing, 
With  a  heart  for  any  fate." 

What  depths  of  life  are  back  of  such  a  sen- 
tence! What  sorrows  and  heartaches,  what 
vigils  and  toil,  before  the  poet  could  write  such 
words.  Thrust  your  rapier  into  them,  as  Mrs. 
Browning  suggests,  and  you  will  find  blood 
upon  it. 

This  is  the  great  secret  of  the  masters;  this 
their  only  divinity;  this  their  only  genius. 
Carlyle  says  of  Shakespeare:  "It  seems  to  me 
a  heedless  notion,  our  common  one,  that  he  sat 
like  a  bird  on  the  bough  and  sang  forth  free 
and  offhand.  Doubt  not  he  had  his  own  sor- 
rows. How  could  a  man  travel  forward  from 
rustic  deer-poaching  to  such  tragedy-writing 
and  not  fall  in  with  sorrows  by  the  way  ?" 

It  is  by  sheer  travail  of  the  soul,  the  age-long 
travail  of  the  human  soul,  that  all  constitutions, 
inventions,  poems,  and  pictures  are  born  into 
this  world.  Indeed,  was  it  not  in  such  travail 
of  the  Infinite  Soul  that  the  world  itself  was 
born  ?  Is  not  this  the  real  creative  power  ?  Is 
it  not  the  genius  of  God  ? 
139 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

We  have  too  often  held  the  notion  that  God 
makes  worlds  as  a  boy  blows  bubbles;  that  all 
these  precious  things  of  earth  and  the  soul  cost 
him  nothing.  A  most  unworthy  thought  of 
God.  As  one  has  truly  said,  ''As  long  as  we 
conceive  him  as  bestowing  blessings  upon  us 
out  of  his  infinite  fullness,  but  at  no  real  cost  to 
himself,  he  sinks  below  the  moral  heroes  of  our 
race." 

If  things  are  true  and  beautiful  and  good  it 
is  because  so  much  of  the  Eternal  Soul  has  gone 
into  them;  just  as  the  soul  of  the  artist  goes 
into  a  picture — the  only  thing  that  makes  it  a 
real  picture.  The  flowers  you  bring  into  the 
sick  room  are  touched  into  life  by  the  Infinite 
love.  They  are  expressions  of  the  divine 
passion,  tokens  of  the  divine  sympathy  and 
thoughtfulness.  If  a  landscape  lifts  the  soul 
it  is  because  there  is  soul  in  it;  for  it  takes  a 
soul  to  move  a  soul. 

When  we  read,  "And  the  Spirit  of  God 
moved  upon  the  face  of  the  waters,*'  we  are 
not  to  think  of  the  waving  of  a  magician's 
wand,  nor  the  ripple  of  the  waters  moved  by  the 
winds.  Into  this  creative  act  goes  all  that  we 
name  personality — thought,  feeling,  will,  all 
bending  and  burning  toward  one  creative  pas- 
140 


The  Hero 

sion,  the  passion  of  love,  of  sacrifice,  of  giving; 
a  passion  that  will  never  stay  till  it  expresses 
itself  in  history,  till  it  speaks  in  blood  through 
the  throbbing  life  of  a  Man,  and  of  whom  it 
will  be  most  truly  said,  ''AH  things  were  made 
by  him,  and  without  him  was  not  anything 
made  that  was  made."  And  his  coming  into 
history  will  be  explained  by  the  fact  that  ''God 
so  loved  the  world,  that  he  gave  his  only  begot- 
ten Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  on  him 
should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life." 
All  this  is  but  the  sequence  of  the  Infinite  trav- 
ail, of  the  creative  passion  making  all  things 
new^ — yes,  finally  new,  a  new  creation  in  Christ 
Jesus. 

Now,  it  is  this  very  thought  we  find  in  these 
most  remarkable  chapters  of  Isaiah  from  the 
fortieth  on — chapters  that  fairly  throb  with 
what  has  been  called  the  "passion  of  God." 
The  objective  point  is  the  captive  people.  The 
voices  have  carried  the  message  of  hope  to 
them.  "Behold,  God  will  come  with  a  strong 
hand."  Then  he  comes.  Comes  with  a  strong 
hand,  but  a  strange  one — strange  to  the  com- 
mon thought  of  men.  You  see  him  coming, 
you  feel  his  approach  in  the  rising  tide  of  the 
chapters. 

141 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

"Jehovah  as  hero  goes  forth 
As  a  man  of  war  stirs  up  zeal, 
Shouts  the  alarm  and  battle  cry 
Against  his  foes,  proves  himself  hero." 

But  this  deliverer  going  forth  is  more  than 
a  human,  he  is  a  divine  Hero.  His  redemption 
is  divine,  not  human.  It  is  an  outpouring  of 
himself,  in  arguments,  in  judgments,  in  awak- 
ening thoughts,  in  passionate  pleading.  In  all 
the  burning  eloquence  of  God  he  pours  life  into 
their  impoverished  veins,  thoughts  into  their 
stupid  minds,  and  love  into  their  wasted  hearts. 
He  pours  himself  out  till  the  limits  of  language 
are  reached  and  a  strange  silence  falls.  In  the 
midst  of  the  people  a  strange  figure  appears,  one 
so  strange  that  the  world  is  amazed,  kings  are 
dumb,  and  the  people  aghast.  What  has  not 
been  heard,  what  has  not  been  said,  what  can 
never  be  said,  is  here.  It  is  the  ultimate  ex- 
pression of  the  divine  passion ;  the  silent  Serv- 
ant of  Jehovah  in  the  midst  of  his  task,  in  the 
travail  of  his  soul. 

To  the  world — to  those  who  have  not  felt 
the  significance  of  our  own  divinity;  who  have 
not  learned  that  it  is  only  by  the  travail  of  our 
soul,  only  by  sacrifice,  that  personal  force  can 
reach  anything  like  a  creative  function,  only 
142 


The  Hero 

through  our  Gethsemanes  and  Calvaries  can  we 
make  the  world  flower  about  us — to  the  world, 
I  say,  he  is  a  strange,  bruised,  wounded,  and 
disfigured  form.  But  to  God  he  is  the  prosper- 
ous servant.  ''He  shall  prosper."  More  liter- 
ally, "He  has  the  insight  and  ability  of  destiny." 

He  sees  man  at  those  strange,  mysterious 
depths  unpierced  by  any  human  eye.  He  will 
seek  out — trace  thought  by  thought,  feeling  by 
feeling,  purpose  by  purpose — the  destiny  of  the 
soul.  He  will  discover,  unearth,  redeem  the 
soul  from  circumstance,  fate,  and  sin. 

What  is  sin  but  chaos  of  soul  ?  What  is  sin 
but  stubbornness  of  heart?  What  is  sin  but 
discord  of  life  ?  What  is  sin  but  the  wayward 
will?  And  He,  moving  upon  the  face  of  the 
wald  human  waters,  in  the  sublime  travail  of  his 
soul  shall  turn  chaos  into  order,  stubbornness 
into  obedience,  discord  into  music,  and  self- 
will  into  divine. 

We  are  brought  in  the  next  chapter  face  to 
face  with  the  hero  at  his  task.  The  revelation 
comes  in  the  form  of  a  human  experience. 
Once  more  humanity  is  grappling  with  the 
Angel  of  life,  an  experience  repeated  again  and 
again  in  every  soul  that  wakens  to  the  meaning 
of  life — the  same  dazed  unbelief;  "Who  has 
143 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

believed — to  whom  Is  the  arm  of  the  Lord  re- 
vealed ?"  the  same  turning  away  of  .the  face : 
'There  is  no  beauty  in  him;"  and  the  same  final 
awakening  to  the  fact  that  all  beauty  and  all 
divinity  and  all  power  is  in  that  bruised  and 
wounded  form. 

We  begin  life  where  the  race  began  by  wor- 
shiping the  sun.  We  believe  in  the  beauty  of 
curves,  the  divinity  of  fists,  and  the  heaven  of 
enjoyment.  Our  idea  of  the  divine  power  is 
force  multiplied  infinitely.  We  have  not  yet 
learned  the  weakness  of  mere  force.  A  giant 
may  crush  a  flower  with  his  heel,  but  there  is 
no  power  in  his  heel  to  nurse  it  back  to  life. 
That  takes  soul  power.  The  power  that  laid 
the  Atlantic  cable  was  not  in  men,  money,  or 
enterprise,  but  in  the  soul  of  Cyrus  W.  Field. 
The  power  that  crushed  the  rebellion  was  not 
in  the  armies  and  navies,  but  in  the  soul  of 
Abraham  Lincoln.  And  God  is  most  and 
mightiest  God  when  he  comes  in  the  forces  of 
the  soul — clad  not  in  the  whirlwind,  earth- 
quake, or  fire,  but  in  a  form  so  bruised  and 
broken  that  the  soul  streams  through  every  rift. 

All  this  we  must  learn;  to  this  we  must 
awaken:  that  the  dominion,  the  power,  and 
the  glory  are  within,  and  that  the  noblest 
144 


The  Hero 

thought  of  life  is  to  let  out  these  inner  splen- 
dors. One  Christmas  Day  I  saw  a  group  of 
children  looking  at  their  presents — pretty 
things.  Ten  minutes  after  they  had  left  their 
toys — made  things — and  were  in  the  back  yard 
with  broken  bits  of  china  making  things;  weav- 
ing earth's  broken  bits  in  the  loom  of  the  soul; 
touching  outer  things  into  life  through  the 
glory  of  the  inner.  And  some  day  they  will 
touch  the  broken  pottery  of  life  into  a  larger, 
diviner  glory.  And  this  passing  from  the  outer 
to  the  inner  glory,  from  the  Sunshine-God  to 
the  Hero-God,  is  the  great  awakening  of  life. 

Slowly  comes  the  awakening.  Some  day  in 
our  childhood  reading  we  come  upon  the  little 
hero,  in  the  person  of  a  boy  who  has  passed 
from  the  lowest  to  the  highest;  a  boy  who 
wrought  with  his  soul,  who  endured,  who 
toiled,  who  suffered.  And  a  new  kind  of  tear 
rolls  down  our  cheek,  the  first  divine  tear.  The 
divine  ideal  is  growing  upon  us. 

How  different  we  felt  when  the  army  re- 
turned from  war  with  faded  uniform,  tattered 
banners,  and  scarred  faces  from  that  hour  when 
we  cheered  them  going  forth !  There  is  a  divin- 
ity in  the  old  glory.  There  is  a  beauty  in  the 
scars  that  was  not  in  the  curves.  And  in  our 
(lo)  145 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

hearts  there  is  a  new  thrill,  for  they  bring 
tidings  not  of  a  Sunshine-God  but  a  Hero- 
God. 

We  listen  with  rapt  attention  and  admiration 
to  Paul  in  the  Sanhedrin,  but  we  feel  a  new 
power  when  the  veteran  stands  before  us  in 
silence  bearing  the  marks  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
upon  him.  It  is  the  glory  of  God  breaking 
through  every  scar. 

This  is  the  awaking  of  life  from  the  sunshine 
that  soothes  to  the  hero  that  calls — from  nature 
to  men,  from  men  to  Christ.  This  is  the 
thought  at  the  heart  of  this  fifty-third  chapter 
of  Isaiah.  It  is  the  medley  of  an  awakening 
soul.  It  is  the  cry  of  the  human  pierced  by  the 
presence  of  God.  They  are  puzzled,  they  are 
dazed.  He  is  a  mystery.  He  runs  counter  to 
all  their  thoughts  of  life.  They  despise  his 
weakness;  they  turn  their  faces  from  his  de- 
formity. By  the  canons  of  religion  they  take 
him  for  a  victim  of  his  own  sin;  he  is  "smitten 
of  God  and  afflicted." 

But  through  all  this  tumult  of  the  outer — of 
thought,  feeling,  and  prejudice — the  revelation 
of  the  inner  is  bearing  down  upon  their  soul. 
A  new  thought  of  God,  a  new  sense  of  beauty, 
a  new  vision  of  power,  is  creeping  over  their 
146 


The  Hero 

soul.  A  new  ideal,  a  new  hero  of  life,  is 
towering  above  them.  This  man  is  no  dark 
mystery,  he  is  the  clear  revelation  of  God;  no 
deformity,  but  the  highest  and  divinest  beauty; 
no  victim,  but  a  hero,  a  master,  a  servant  of 
God. 

If  about  him  we  see  the  strange,  dazed,  dis- 
gusted, and  angry  human  faces;  if  circum- 
stances seem  to  overwhelm  him,  crush  him;  if 
he  is  silent  when  we  listen  for  his  voice,  it  is 
not  because  he  is  a  victim  but  a  master.  Silent ! 
yes,  because  he  is  looking  out  from  the  travail 
of  his  soul,  down  into  the  heart  of  man,  up  into 
the  heart  of  God,  and  away  into  the  future, 
satisfied  already  with  his  divine  mastery. 

The  people  hear  a  new  voice;  deep  calls  unto 
deep.  It  is  the  hero  voice  calling  them  to  the 
heroic  life,  waking  the  divine  in  them.  And 
they  tremble  upon  the  verge  of  a  new  life.  But 
it  is  only  a  trembling  at  first — a  contrition  for 
sin  that  breaks  forth  into  penitential  song. 
They  have  seen  the  divine  Hero,  but,  alas!  he 
is  crushed  under  the  weight  of  their  own  un- 
divine  life.  "He  is  wounded  for  our  transgres- 
sions, he  is  bruised  for  our  iniquities." 

Yet  this  is  the  very  point  where  life  begins, 
as  John  Newton  once  sang : 
147 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

"I  saw  One  hanging  on  a  tree, 

In  agony  and  blood, 
Who  fixed  his  languid  eyes  on  me, 

While  at  the  cross  I  stood. 

"Never  to  my  latest  breath 

Shall  I  forget  that  look : 
He  seemed  to  charge  me  with  his  death, 

Though  not  a  word  he  spoke." 

The  same  conscience  that  finally  awakes  to  com- 
mend the  divine  Hero  condemns  me. 

There  is  a  time  when  a  rift  occurs  in  life; 
when  the  very  ideal  that  has  stirred  the  noblest 
in  us  looms  up  from  another,  impossible  shore; 
when  we  awake  to  the  startling  fact  that  in 
life  there  are  two  worlds,  not  one :  this  world 
of  sunshine  and  clouds  below,  and  that  world 
of  moral  and  spiritual  heroism  above.  This 
lower  is  very  human,  that  higher  is  very  divine. 
And  we  cannot  shake  off  the  conviction — nay, 
we  would  not  shake  off  the  conviction — that 
our  true  life  belongs  to  that  higher.  But  the 
two  worlds  drift  on  with  impossible  spaces 
lying  between  them. 

True,  there  is  an  intermingling  of  light  and 
life  between  these  two.  And  there  is  the  ascent 
of  man,  the  upward  struggle.  Science  inter- 
prets the  upward  trend,  but  the  trend  itself, 
the  life  struggle  upward,  never  came  through 
148 


The  Hero 

science.  The  deeper  meaning  of  life  is  not  told 
in  ''the  ascent  of  man,"  but  in  the  descent  of 
God;  not  in  evolution,  but  in  revelation;  not 
from  below,  but  from  above — for  life  is  born  of 
ideals,  and  ideals  are  always  above. 

Between  Job  and  this  divine  Hero  there  is  an 
apparent  similarity,  yet  a  decided  difference. 
In  Job  the  hero  climbs  upward  through  doubt 
and  darkness  and  suffering  into  the  deeper  mys- 
teries of  life.  The  inevitable  falls  upon  him, 
and  he  turns  it  to  the  finer  issues  of  his  soul. 

But  here  the  Hero  of  God  is  not  ascend- 
ing, but  descending.  He  is  not  a  victim, 
but  a  master.  It  is  not  the  inevitable,  but  a 
task  to  which  he  freely  puts  his  soul.  The 
travail  of  his  soul  is  not  for  finer  issues  in  him- 
self, but  in  the  souls  of  men.  It  is  the  dynamics 
of  God  entering  into  the  life  of  men.  And 
these  men,  penitent,  broken,  plastic  before  him, 
find  the  purpose  of  his  life  in  their  own  life. 
''With  his  stripes  we  are  healed."  "The  chas- 
tisements of  our  peace  are  upon  him."  They 
reach  life  through  life.  Nay,  rather,  life  has 
come;  the  rift  is  crossed  from  above.  The  tides 
of  heaven  rush  through  them — a  new  world  has 
entered  and  beats  against  the  shores  of  the  old. 

The  very  potency  of  God  has  entered  our  life. 
149 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

"He  shall  see  his  seed."  His  seed  is  in  us. 
He  shall  find  himself  in  us  over  and  over  again. 
We  shall  be  repeaters — echoes  of  his  life.  For 
him  to  live  will  be  men,  and  men  and  more  men, 
and  diviner,  till  far  down  the  ages  one  shall 
cry,  ''Beloved,  it  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we 
shall  be,  but — we  shall  be  like  him." 

Through  him  we  shall  evolve  the  purpose  of 
God  in  us;  for  "he  shall  divide  the  spoil  with 
the  strong."  As  we  go  forth  from  our  Baby- 
Ions,  in  the  progress  of  the  world,  not  at  his  car 
shall  all  the  captives  be  led;  not  on  his  shoul- 
ders shall  all  the  spoils  be  borne.  He  shall  walk 
in  the  midst  of  an  army  of  strong  men,  men  who 
are  conscious  of  such  a  fullness  of  life  that  they 
pour  themselves  out  with  a  strange  prodigality 
till  the  desert  world  blooms  like  a  garden.  One 
shall  find  the  forces  of  nature  playing  their 
strange  game  about  his  feet,  and  shall  lift  them 
and  make  them  take  part  in  the  larger  game  of 
human  destiny.  Another  shall  catch  the  music 
of  the  sea  upon  his  sensitive  soul  and  fling  it  to 
the  world  in  poetic  measure;  while  yet  another, 
receiving  into  his  heart  the  deep  life  of  God,  on 
fire  with  the  redeeming  passion  of  the  Hero, 
shall  rush  earthward,  crying,  "This,  this  is  the 
hour  for  souls." 

150 


THE  CHRIST 
Literature 


"Oft  the  ancient  forms 
Will  thrill,  indeed,  in  carrying  the  young  blood. 
The  wine  skins,  now  and  then  a  little  warped, 
Will  crack  even,  as  the  new  wine  gurgles  in: 
Spare  the  old  bottles ! — spill  not  the  new  wine." 

— Mrs.  Browning. 

"Then  he  remembered  how  that  in  the  dream 
One  told  him  of  the  marvel  of  that  stream, 
Whose  waters  are  a  well  of  youth  eterne. 
And  night  and  day  its  crystal  heart  doth  yearn 
To  wed  its  youthhood  with  the  sea's  old  age ; 
And  faring  on  that  bridal  pilgrimage. 
Its  waters  past  the  shining  city  are  rolled. 
And  all  the  people  drink  and  wax  not  old." 

— William  Watson. 


LITERATURE 

"  Think  not  that  I  am  come  to  destroy  the  law,  or  the  prophets  :  I  am 
not  come  to  destroy,  but  to  fulfill." — Matt,  v,  17. 

The  Bible  realizes  its  ideal  in  history. 
Other  literatures  have  failed  in  this  respect. 
Plato  spoke  of  a  man  that  should  come  with  the 
last  word  of  truth.  But  that  man  never  came 
to  complete  the  philosophy  of  Plato.  The  artist 
idealized  beauty  into  a  god.  But  that  god  never 
became  incarnate  and  visited  the  studio  of  the 
artist.  Confucius  bends  all  his  theories  tow^ard 
what  he  calls  ''the  superior  man."  But  that 
man  never  came  to  verify  the  theories  of 
*  Confucius. 

But  God  seems  to  have  entered  into  a  league 
with  the  Hebrew  Bible  that  sometime,  some- 
where, the  great  ideal  of  that  book  should  be 
realized  in  a  person.  Now,  it  has  been  said, 
and  most  truly,  that  ''personality  is  the  Ulti- 
mate Reality,"  therefore  the  Bible  reveals  the 
Ultimate  Reality;  is  a  complete  book.  Other 
books  are  fragments.  They  begin  with  a  per- 
son in  local  relations  and  pass  on  into  words, 
powerless  words.  This  book  begins  with  words, 
the  dreams  and  aspirations  of  the  centuries, 
153 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

and  passes  on  into  a  person,  who  has  universal 
relations,  an  almighty  and  all-loving  Person, 
complete  in  him.  '^I  am  come  not  to  destroy, 
but  to  fulfill."  These  Old  Testament  scriptures 
hold  potentially  God's  great  thought  of  life,  and 
Jesus  Christ  came  to  fulfill  it. 

There  are  different  vv^ays  of  treating  the  past. 
One  is  to  become  its  slave.  What  has  been 
must  be.  What  is  v^ritten  is  written.  As  a 
prominent  Jesuit  has  said  of  his  Church,  ''Her 
methods  may  ebb  and  flow,  her  ritual  change, 
her  discipline  undergo  modifications,  but  her 
doctrines  never."  That  is,  the  logic  of  one  cen- 
tury will  fix  the  boundaries  of  life  for  all  cen- 
turies. This  w^as  the  teaching  of  the  scribes  in 
the  days  of  Christ.  We  are  bound  by  the  past 
— magnificent  fetters,  golden  chains,  wrought 
by  Moses,  the  prophets,  and  the  elders. 

Christ  met  the  old  scripture  not  as  a  slave, 
but  as  a  master — the  highest  form  of  mastery. 
He  did  not  destroy — the  real  master  never 
does;  he  redeems,  he  fulfills.  He  nourished 
his  young  life  on  those  old  books.  You  can't 
nourish  your  life  on  a  book  unless  in  some  de- 
gree you  master  it.  Sw^allowing  a  book  whole 
never  nourishes  a  man's  life.  You  must  learn 
how  to  husk  a  book  to  get  at  the  corn.  And 
154 


Literature 

you  must  learn  the  difference  in  the  vakie  of  the 
husk  and  the  corn. 

In  these  old  scriptures  there  is  much  of  the 
human  husk  enfolding  the  golden  kernels  of 
God.  Jesus  husked  them  of  the  letter,  the  form, 
the  incidental,  the  detail,  down  to  the  living 
spirit.  This  gave  the  scriptures  in  his  hands  a 
living,  present-day  value  and  power.  He  did 
not  appeal  to  them  because  they  were  old,  be- 
cause the  elders  had  approved  of  them,  but 
because  they  were  a  living  power,  a  present- 
day  force,  something  to  command  men  that 
very  hour. 

And  this  takes  us  another  step  in  his  mastery 
of  the  scriptures.  So  sure  is  he  that  he  is  in  line 
with  the  ancient  Spirit  of  God  that  he  dares  put 
himself  into  the  old  scriptures,  making  them 
speak  again  with  his  own  living  voice:  *'Ye 
have  heard  how  that  it  hath  been  said,  .  .  .  but 
I  say  unto  you."  Since  then  those  old  scrip- 
tures have  throbbed  with  a  new  and  deeper 
life. 

Just  as  some  great  genius,  some  Shakespeare, 
takes  a  bit  of  ancient  history  and  makes  it  live 
again  by  putting  himself  into  it — making  the 
characters  live,  move,  and  have  their  being  in 
his  life — so  Jesus  Christ  put  himself  into  the 
155 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

old  scriptures  till  they  live,  move,  and  have 
their  being  in  him.  The  scribes  had  been  spin- 
ning them  out  into  details,  rituals,  commen- 
taries, creeds.  Christ  entered  them,  making 
them  live  again  with  God's  great  idea  of  life. 
Old  boundaries  of  interpretation  were  broken 
and  expanded.  The  psalms  were  set  to  a  larger 
music.  The  old  epics  were  made  to  tell  ^ 
divine  story.  And  prophecy  that  had  been 
waiting  for  ages  in  cheerless  expectation  felt 
itself  live  again  with  the  Spirit  of  God.  There 
are  masters  through  whom  we  study  the  true, 
the  beautiful,  and  the  good.  But  there  is  but 
one  supreme  Master  through  whom  we  must 
read  God's  ancient  story  of  life. 

But  there  is  a  scripture  more  ancient  than  the 
Hebrew.  That  is  nature.  Long  before  this 
scripture  was  written  that  other  scripture  was 
being  studied.  There  were  nature  stories 
before  there  were  Bible  stories.  And  how  to 
master  the  nature  stories  through  the  Bible 
stories  was  and  still  is  the  problem,  the  great 
problem  in  literature. 

There  are  men  who  instead  of  being  slaves 

of  the  past,  like  the  scribes,  simply  sweep  it 

away,  crying,  ''Away  with  tradition."     They 

think  themselves  prophets,  but  they  are  not; 

156 


Literature 

for  a  real  prophet  does  not  destroy,  he  fulfills. 
He  strikes  the  flinty  rocks  of  the  past,  the  reser- 
voirs of  God,  and  they  burst  forth  in  living 
v^aters. 

But  the  air  just  now  is  full  of  the  cry,  "Away 
with  the  past."  Modern  literature  has  been 
faithfully  characterized  as  a  "literature  of  re- 
volt.'' "Away  with  old  forms,  old  creeds,  and 
old  teachings;  let  us  get  out  of  the  stuffy  atmos- 
phere of  tradition."  Out  where?  Into  the 
open  road  of  nature.  This  is  the  cry.  Back 
from  the  ancient  scripture  to  the  more  ancient 
scripture.  Whitman  says,  "I  see  now  the  secret 
of  making  the  best  men:  it  is  to  grow  in  the 
open  air  and  eat  and  sleep  with  the  earth." 
Then  the  North  American  Indians,  the  Hot- 
tentots, and  the  South  Sea  Islanders  ought  to 
be  the  best  men.  They  live  in  the  open  air  and 
eat  and  sleep  with  the  earth. 

Grow  best  in  the  open  air!  Why  that  de- 
pends on  what  we  are.  If  we  are  men  with  the 
prophecy  of  divinity  within  us  it  seems  to  me 
we  shall  grow  best  not  under  the  tutelage  of 
nature,  but  of  the  Divine  Man. 

This  thought  should  decide  us  on  those  fine 
spring  mornings  when  we  are  debating  between 
the  temple  of  the  living  Christ  and  the  temple 
157 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

of  nature — whether  true  life,  rich,  noble,  and 
strong,  lies  in  the  direction  of 

"O  to  be  lost  in  the  wind  and  the  sun, 
To  be  one  with  the  wind  and  the  stream  ! 

With  never  a  care  while  the  waters  run, 
With  never  a  thought  in  my  dream," 

or  in  the  direction  of  that  other  uncompromis- 
ing heroic  voice,  calling  down  from  the  heights 
of  manhood,  "Whosoever  will  come  after  me, 
let  him  deny  himself,  and  take  up  his  cross,  and 
follow  me;'*  whether  we  are  not  more  in  need 
of  the  Hero-God  than  the  Nature-God. 

But  nature  always  leads  the  thoughtful  man 
another  step — from  her  dreamy  soothing  songs 
into  her  heartless,  resistless  laws;  into  fatalism, 
crushing  fatalism. 

Modern  literature  is  ''sicklied  o'er  with  the 
pale  cast  of  fatalism,"  is  more  than  half  pagan. 
It  has  not  quite  risen  to  the  lofty  spirit  of  the 
Bible,  working  out  the  grand  epic  of  man's  free 
spirit  through  the  ''shades  of  the  prison  house" 
unto  the  liberty  of  the  sons  of  God. 

And  what  we  find  in  literature  we  find  in 

life.     The  hardest  thing  to  meet  is  just  this 

sentiment  of  fatalism  creeping  over  the  spirit 

of  life;  referring  everything  to  circumstances, 

158 


Literature 

to  law,  to  environment — not  daring  to  stand 
for  our  own  God-given  free  spirit. 

When  Christ  came  to  carry  out,  to  fulfill, 
God's  thought  of  life  he  came  to  nature.  But 
he  approached  nature  as  no  man  had  ever  done 
before.  He  loved  her,  but  not  as  her  slave,  as 
her  master.  He  must  have  loved  nature,  else  he 
never  would  have  seen  so  much  in  her.  Her 
birds  and  brooks,  her  green  hills  and  mysteri- 
ous mountains,  were  the  sweet,  sympathetic 
companions  of  his  life.  But  they  never  wooed 
him  to  their  dreamy,  listless  songs,  as  they  have 
so  many  other  teachers  in  that  Eastern  land. 
They  never  bound  him  in  the  shackles  of  their 
fatalistic  laws.  No  fatalism  ever  blighted  his 
words.  His  was  the  high  and  holy  language  of 
the  free  and  buoyant  spirit. 

Other  men  have  sung  nature's  songs  and  told 
nature's  stories.  But  Jesus  Christ  came  with 
the  master  spirit  and  wooed  nature  to  his  own 
story  of  life.  He  did  not  sing  her  songs,  she 
sang  his.  He  did  not  tell  her  stories,  she  told 
his.  He  did  not  take  up  the  thought  of  the 
lily's  life,  but  he  made  the  lily  take  up  the 
thought  of  his  life.  He  did  not  undertake  to 
tell  the  story  of  the  sparrow's  life,  but  he  wove 
the  sparrow  into  his  own  great  story  of  life. 
159 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

He  did  not  lead  us  back  and  down  into  the 
long,  mysterious  life-and-death  story  of  the 
kernel  of  wheat,  but  he  wove  it  into  his  own 
great  life-and-death  story.  And  ever  since  it 
has  been  repeating  the  story  of  a  life  beyond  the 
grave. 

His  story  of  life  is  larger  and  diviner  than 
nature's  story.  Hers  is  mortal,  his  immortal. 
Hers  is  of  bondage,  his  of  freedom.  Her  story 
runs  backward,  his  runs  forward.  Hers  is  of 
the  earth,  earthy,  his  is  of  the  sons  and  daugh- 
ters of  God. 

But  there  is  another  scripture  deeper  and 
older  than  nature.  It  is  our  life,  our  inmost 
being.  It  is  deeper  and  older  because  the  linea- 
ments of  God  are  in  it — the  divine  possibility; 
that  prophecy  in  men  written  before  the  founda- 
tions of  the  world,  that  Jesus  Christ  came  not  to 
destroy,  but  to  fulfill;  that  prophecy  buried 
away  in  the  heart  of  the  publican  and  sinner, 
a  prophecy  that  Jesus  alone  could  see,  could 
read,  could  fulfill,  and  so  hovered  about  the 
soul ;  such  a  prophecy  in  us  all  to  be  fulfilled, 
if  ever,  through  Jesus  Christ. 

One  thing  stands  in  the  way  of  that  fulfill- 
ment— not  law,  not  circumstance,  but  sin. 
Some  writers  tell  us  sin  is  only  a  morbid  condi- 
i6o 


Literature 

tion  of  the  conscience  induced  by  tradition ;  and 
some  that  it  is  only  an  imperfection  of  our 
nature  that  we  shall  in  time  outgrow.  But  the 
deep  heart  of  man  has  never  accepted  these  defi- 
nitions of  sin.  Our  deepest  intuitions  pass  be- 
yond tradition  and  nature,  and  lodge  the  diffi- 
culty in  the  will,  in  the  central  life. 

But  how  to  manage  the  will  of  man  is  the 
whole  problem  of  life.  And  so  sin  becomes  the 
final  objective  point  of  all  human  effort.  It 
keeps  the  world  busy.  If  sin  could  be  elim- 
inated from  the  world  the  most  of  us  would  be 
out  of  work. 

This  problem  of  sin,  this  conflict  with  sin, 
was  the  principal  business  of  the  Hebrew  na- 
tion. All  that  great  structure  of  sacrifices  and 
ceremonies,  of  statutes  and  literatures,  of  obli- 
gations and  oaths,  built  up  through  the  cen- 
turies into  a  mighty,  complex,  and  elaborate 
piece  of  machinery,  was  all  designed  to  meet  the 
fact  of  sin. 

Now,  that  whole  great  structure  stood  for 
life  to  the  Jew,  It  said.  Do  this  and  live.  And 
Jesus  came  not  to  destroy,  but  to  fulfill. 

But  imagine  the  shock  to  the  Hebrew  world 
when  this  man  dares  to  reduce  this  whole  struc- 
ture, hoary  with  years,  to  a  simple  story  of 
(ii)  i6i 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

family  life — of  a  son  who  goes  astray,  who 
comes  to  himself,  who  returns  home  and  casts 
himself  into  the  forgiving  arms  of  a  father. 

If  simplicity  be  the  highest  mark  of  mastery 
— and  is  it  not  ? — then  Jesus  Christ  must  be  the 
Master  in  literature.  He  probes  the  heart  of 
all  scriptures  and  reduces  them  to  a  simple  story 
plucked  from  the  family  life  of  man. 

And  is  this  indeed  the  real  story  of  life?  So 
Jesus  Christ  tells  us;  and  he  puts  himself  into 
the  story,  and  that  made  it  real.  He  did  not 
explain  it,  but  he  lived  it.  His  atonement  was 
a  life.  He  lived  it.  And  when  he  had  lived 
it  out  to  the  last  red  drop  of  blood,  lived  it  out 
to  the  right-hand  glory  of  God,  then  by  faith 
was  the  story  transferred  in  terms  of  a  new  life 
to  the  soul  of  man.  Since  then  the  world's 
best  literature  has  been  struggling  to  write  this 
story  the  Master  lived,  this  story  of  life  that 
lies  deeper  than  tradition  or  nature,  deeper  than 
environment  or  heredity — the  epic  of  man's 
free  spirit,  the  story  of  sin,  forgiveness,  and 
sonship. 

162 


THE  CHRIST 
History 


"For  this  is  Love's  nobility — 
Not  to  scatter  bread  and  gold, 
Goods  and  raiment  bought  and  sold: 
But  to  hold  fast  his  simple  sense, 
And  speak  the  speech  of  innocence. 
And  with  hand,  and  body,  and  blood, 
To  make  his  bosom  counsel  good. 
For  he  that  feedeth  men  serveth  few; 
He  serves  all  who  dares  be  true." 

— Emerson. 

"And  I  saw,  and  behold  a  white  horse:  and  he  that 
sat  on  him  had  a  bow ;  and  a  crown  was  given  unto  him : 
and  he  went  forth  conquering,  and  to  conquer." — John. 


HISTORY 

•'But  he  answered  and  said,  It  is  written,  Man  shall  not  live  by  bread 
alone,  but  by  every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of  God.  .  .  . 
Jesus  said  unto  him.  It  is  written  again,  Thou  shall  not  tempt  the  Lord 
thy  God.  .  .  .  Then  saith  Jesus  unto  him,  Get  thee  hence,  Satan :  for  it 
is  written,  Thou  shalt  worship  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  him  only  shalt  thou 
serve." — Matt,  iv,  4,  7,  10. 

There  are  at  least  two  sides  to  the  tempta- 
tion of  Jesus.  First,  there  was  the  temptation 
itself,  the  testing  and  proving  that  he  was  the 
Son  of  God.  Then  there  were  the  utterances 
wrung  from  him  in  the  hour  of  his  trial,  the 
enunciation  of  those  principles  through  which 
he  achieved  his  mission.  They  are  quotations 
from  an  old  scripture,  words  touched  into  a 
new  and  larger  meaning  by  the  lips  of  Jesus. 
''Man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone,"  and  "thou 
shalt  not  tempt  God,"  but  ''thou  shalt  serve 
him."  There  is  a  distinct  development  of 
thought  here,  leading  us  into  the  full  meaning 
of  the  life  of  Christ  as  the  Master  of  the  world's 
history. 

Jesus  did  not  make  bread,  because  he  came 
to  make  men,  and  men  are  not  made  of  bread. 
This  thought  that  man  does  not  live  by  bread 
alone  grew  out  of  an  experience  of  God's  peo- 
ple. God  had  been  making  some  men,  and  he 
165 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

hadn't  used  much  bread  in  the  process.  He 
had  made  them  not  in  gardens,  but  in  the 
desert;  not  among  the  vineyards,  but  under  the 
shadow  of  somber  mountains.  They  were  led 
not  by  the  wheat  fields  of  the  future,  but  by  a 
fire  at  night  and  a  cloud  by  day.  He  had  made 
them  of  words,  knowledge,  visions,  command- 
ments, and  discipline,  sifting  them  in  through 
the  soul  as  the  sun  sifts  through  the  chinks  of 
a  cavern  till  it  is  all  glorious  within. 

This  is  the  most  ancient  lesson  of  God,  that 
man  does  not  live  by  bread,  but  by  words — the 
lesson  Abraham  had  to  learn.  One  day  the 
question  of  bread  arose — he  must  have  bread. 
Down  to  Egypt  he  goes,  coins  his  soul  in  the 
mint  of  iniquity,  and  buys  bread.  But  he  learns 
the  lesson  and  returns  again  to  his  hill  country, 
there  to  nourish  his  higher  nature,  as  God 
whispers  through  the  oak,  speaks  in  the  sacri- 
fice, and  looks  down  through  the  steady,  strong 
stars.  Another  day,  when  he  and  Lot  stood 
out  to  divide  the  land,  it  was  a  bread  question 
again.  Lot  took  the  bread,  the  fertile  plains; 
and  this  time  Abraham  was  content  with  the 
rocks,  the  stars,  and  God. 

This  is  the  age-long  lesson  of  God.  We  start 
with  bread,  then  we  must  have  clothes,  and 
i66 


History 

then  houses ;  but  to-morrow  we  must  have  finer 
bread,  better  clothes,  pockets  in  them,  and 
something  to  put  in  the  pockets.  Every  day 
creates  new  hungers,  and  the  old  is  lost  in  the 
appeal  of  the  new. 

There  is  the  hunger  of  the  mind  for  truth, 
ascending  to  all  heights  and  descending  to  all 
depths.  Turning  back  upon  history,  digging 
into  self — all  questions  of  bread  overrun  in  this 
great  mind  hunger,  freezing  at  the  poles,  burn- 
ing at  the  equator,  suffering,  toiling,  dying  for 
the  truth. 

There  is  another  hunger  following  upon  this, 
the  hunger  of  the  conscience  for  new  duties; 
for  no  sooner  does  a  new  truth  possess  a  man 
than  a  new  world  beckons  to  him.  Paul  with 
the  old  Pharisaic  truth,  narrow  and  keen,  cuts 
a  swath  of  destruction  in  the  name  of  duty, 
haling  men  and  women  to  prison.  But  when 
the  new  truth  came,  behold,  a  new  duty.  He  is 
just  as  eager  now  to  throw  open  the  prison 
doors  of  life,  crying,  'The  love  of  Christ  con- 
straineth  me." 

And  what  is  this  lesson  but  this :  the  infinite 

capacity  for  life  in  man,  the  capacity  for  God; 

''all  the  words"  that  proceed  out  of  the  mouth 

of  God.    And  it  was  this  infinite  capacity  Jesus 

167 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

came  to  recognize  in  man.  This  he  insisted 
upon;  this  thought  shaped  his  ministry — the 
infinite  capacity  of  Hfe.  Every  gospel  door 
opened  out.  One  day  at  Nazareth  he  took  up 
the  scripture  of  Isaiah:  "Gospel  for  the  poor, 
deliverance  for  captives,  sight  for  the  blind, 
liberty  for  the  bruised."  Every  gateway  swing- 
ing outward  and  life  pouring  forth  in  an  ever- 
swelling  stream. 

And  one  day  around  this  very  question  of 
bread  he  works  out  again  the  old  thought  that 
man  does  not  live  by  bread.  He  had  just  per- 
formed the  miracle  of  the  loaves.  Then  from 
the  bread  he  leads  up  to  words,  great  living 
words,  and  from  words  to  himself,  till  the 
crowd  melted  away  and  only  a  few  of  his  fol- 
lowers were  left;  then  turning  to  them  with 
"And  will  ye  also  go?"  while  Peter — Peter 
always  bigger  inside  than  out,  always  with 
more  ideas  than  he  knew  what  to  do  with,  with 
more  life  than  he  could  manage — Peter  rose  to 
the  occasion,  crying,  "To  whom  shall  we  go? 
Thou  hast  the  words  of  eternal  life." 

Standing  out,  then,  with  this  infinite  capacity 
for  Hfe,  half  real,  half  ideal,  the  question  fol- 
lows. What  shall  we  do  with  it?  This  life, 
this  infinite  capacity  for  life,  what  direction 
i68 


History 

shall  it  take?  This  brings  us  naturally  to  the 
second  scripture,  and  the  first  thought  is  to  ex- 
ploit this  life,  this  capacity,  for  ourself.  Climb 
to  the  pinnacle  and  cast  thyself  down;  startle 
the  world;  tempt  God,  test  him,  develop  him, 
according  to  thy  will. 

But  this  is  to  reverse  the  order  of  life. 
'Thou  shalt  not  tempt  God."  God  is  not  here 
to  be  tempted;  we  are.  God  is  not  here  to  be 
tested;  we  are.  God  is  not  here  to  be  developed, 
but  we  are.  We  need  to  be  tested,  tried,  devel- 
oped, drawn  up  into  God's  will,  for  that  is  the 
moralization  of  life. 

Let  no  man  think  the  world  a  machine  to  be 
run  by  him.  The  world  is  a  school.  God  is  the 
master,  and  we  are  in  training  for  moral  ends. 
It  is  a  graded  school,  and  we  pass  from  grade 
to  grade,  through  temptation,  trials,  develop- 
ment. Every  day  we  break  from  the  little  cir- 
cles into  the  larger;  pass  more  and  more  into 
the  orbit  of  God's  will,  more  and  more  into  the 
moral  quality. 

It  is  not  a  self-willed  dash  from  the  pinnacle. 
Manhood  is  not  in  such  an  act.  Strength  and 
mastery  are  not  there.  It  is  rather  a  climbing 
to  the  pinnacle,  a  measuring  up  and  up,  till  we 
reach  the  top;  then  not  to  hurl  ourselves  down, 
169 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

but  to  stand,  to  balance  ourself  there,  accord- 
ing to  the  moral  structure  of  the  universe. 
This  is  mastery,  this  strength,  this  service. 

'Tor  he  that  feedeth  men  serveth  few; 
He  serves  all  who  dares  be  true." 

Our  own  Lincoln  in  the  last  century  achieved 
this.  When  they  rushed  upon  him  demanding 
his  policy,  the  miracle  by  which  he  should  save 
the  nation,  he  remained  calm,  and  for  policies 
gave  principles.  When  they  were  hurling 
themselves  from  their  pinnacles  in  frantic  poli- 
cies of  the  hour  he  was  searching  deeper  for  the 
will  of  God.  Groping  his  way  toward  the 
moral  trend,  he  got  his  feet  upon  the  granite, 
and  there  stood  when  his  friends  fell  like  nine- 
pins about  him.  But  it  was  no  blind  fatalism; 
rather,  he  had  reached  the  pinnacle  of  an 
ethicised  soul.  He  was  alive,  alert,  aquiver 
with  the  sensitiveness  of  God.  And  when  the 
morning  rays  of  hope  at  last  broke  it  was  the 
mountain  peak  of  his  soul  that  was  first  bathed 
in  sunlight. 

The  dash  from  the  pinnacle  is  self-willed.  It 
may  project  itself  in  theories,  policies,  schemes 
— commercial,  social,  political,  or  otherwise. 
These  may  be  enforced  by  the  stubborn,  strenu- 
ous will,  the  set  teeth,  the  fixed  eye,  the  clinched 
170 


History 

fist,  but  the  stars  fight  against  us  in  their  course. 
The  ministry  of  angels  does  not  He  along  this 
way.  For  what  is  the  ministry  of  angels  but 
the  ministry  of  the  higher  nature.  The 
thoughts  and  feelings  that  weave  themselves 
into  the  soul  that  is  under  the  training  of  God. 
The  manna  that  nourishes  the  will  that  is  under 
the  tutelage  of  the  Almighty.  The  larger  views 
ever  flowing  in  from  above,  lifting  life  through 
the  downward  currents  as  a  ship  is  borne  up- 
ward through  the  locks  by  the  constant  inflow^- 
ing  water,  till  we  reach  at  last  the  mountain 
heights  of  a  moral  life,  illumined  of  God,  and 
look  out  upon  the  world  with  the  eyes  of  God. 

And  this  is  the  scene  of  the  third  temptation. 
We  are  already  in  the  presence  of  the  third 
scripture,  ^Thou  shalt  worship  God,  and  him 
only  shalt  thou  serve." 

There  is  but  one  divine  service.  The  tempter 
proposed  that  Jesus  buy  the  world,  own  it. 
But,  quite  aside  from  the  morale  of  the  pur- 
chase, owning  the  world  is  not  serving  God. 
Owning  the  Philippines  is  not  serving  God. 
Owning  a  dollar  is  not  serving  God.  There  is 
but  one  divine  service.  Redeeming  things, 
bringing  back  the  lost  values,  the  divine  worth 
of  things — this  Is  both  worship  and  service. 
171 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

Gold  is  lost  in  the  mountains  till  it  is  re- 
deemed, and  then  it  must  be  redeemed  again 
into  the  service  of  God  and  man;  for  when  we 
get  it  we  are  not  sure  what  to  do  with  it.  To- 
day we  make  of  it  the  golden  calf;  to-morrow 
we  fresco  the  sky,  shutting  out  the  sun;  the 
next  day  we  adorn  ourselves,  and,  behold,  we 
are  in  fetters.  By  and  by  we  shall  get  the  New 
Jerusalem  idea,  that  gold  is  not  for  gods,  nor 
sky,  nor  fetters,  but  for  streets,  for  pavements 
for  the  sons  of  God  to  walk  home  on. 

Art  is  lost  in  the  discords  of  the  world  until 
the  redeemers  come — the  poets,  painters,  and 
musicians.  And  it,  too,  must  be  redeemed 
again  ere  it  come  into  the  service  of  God  and 
man.  For  to-day  her  ministry  is  mixed,  per- 
verse, perverted,  and  perverting.  It  is  playing 
to  the  pit  of  sense  instead  of  the  heights  of  the 
soul.  Yet  we  believe  it  is  slowly  working  its 
way  into  more  spiritual  hands,  hands  of  the 
immortal  harpers  that  serve  God  day  and  night ; 
into  that  service  which  Tolstoi  claims  is  the 
real  mission  of  art — the  fatherhood  of  God  and 
the  brotherhood  of  man. 

And  science,  too,  is  lost  in  the  labyrinth  of 
the  universe  and  must  be  redeemed — twice  re- 
deemed :  first  from  nature,  and  then  from  doubt 
172 


History 

to  faith,  from  matter  to  spirit,  from  the  making 
of  bread  to  the  making  of  man. 

But  there  is  a  redemption  deeper  and  more 
vital,  a  redemption  about  which  all  these  play 
but  a  secondary  part — the  redemption  of  the 
sons  of  God  from  the  depths  of  our  humanity. 
This  is  the  redemption  of  Jesus;  the  heart  of 
all  redemption. 

There  is  an  ancient  scripture  to  the  effect 
that  a  fact  may  be  established  by  two  witnesses, 
and  there  are  two  witnesses  to  the  fact  that  we 
are  the  sons  of  Adam.  One  is  within,  the  other 
without.  Our  environment  forever  bears  wit- 
ness with  our  inherited  weakness  that  we  are 
children  of  the  first  Adam.  But  Jesus  came  to 
establish  another  fact,  an  overwhelming  fact, 
mighty  and  victorious — that  we  are  the  sons  of 
God,  sons  of  the  spirit,  sons  of  power,  sons  of 
liberty.  And  this  has  been  established  by  two 
witnesses,  one  within  and  one  above.  'The 
Spirit  of  God  beareth  witness  with  our  spirit 
that  we  are  the  sons  of  God."  This  is  at 
once  the  foundation  and  goal  of  the  world's 
progress. 

"What  if  the  overturned  altar 
Lays  bare  the  ancient  lie? 
What  if  the  dreams  and  legends 
Of  the  world's  childhood  die? 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

"Have  ye  not  his  witness 

Within  yourselves  always, 
His  hand  that  on  the  keys  of  life 

For  bliss  or  bale  he  lays?" 

The  divine  current  of  history,  then,  accord- 
ing to  the  scripture  of  the  temptation  and  under 
the  mastery  of  Christ,  flows  ever  toward  the 
development  of  man's  infinite  capacity — flows 
not  wantonly  and  willfully,  but  is  seized  and 
bent,  trained  and  disciplined,  unto  the  will  of 
God  and  the  moralization  of  the  world. 

Nor  is  this  the  full  significance  of  the  world's 
progress.  The  movement  is  more  than  moral. 
It  is  spiritual.  It  is  redemptive.  It  is  a  series 
of  new  births,  of  new  worlds  redeemed  from 
the  old. 

The  victory  of  Christ  in  the  wilderness  is  the 
age-long  victory  of  Christ  in  his  world. 

"The  world's  old; 
But  the  old  world  waits  the  time  to  be  renewed : 
Toward  which,  new  hearts  in  individual  growth 
Must  quicken,  and  increase  to  multitude 
In  new  dynasties  of  the  race  of  men — 
Developed  whence,  shall  grow  spontaneously 
New  churches,  new  economies,  new  laws 
Admitting  freedom,  new  societies 
Excluding  falsehood.    He  shall  make  all  new." 

174 


THE  CHRIST 
Life 


"Why,  all  the  souls  that  were  were  forfeit  once; 
And  He  that  might  the  vantage  best  have  took 
Found  out  the  remedy." — Shakespeare. 

"And  in  the  lowest  beasts  are  slaying  men, 
And  in  the  second  men  are  slaying  beasts, 
And  on  the  third  are  warriors,  perfect  men, 
And  on  the  fourth  are  men  with  growing  wings, 
And  over  all  one  Statue." — Tennyson, 


LIFE 

"  For  the  law  of  the  Spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus  hath  made  me  free 
from  the  law  of  sin  and  death." — Rom,  viii,  2. 

Every  philosophy  discusses  the  freedom  of 
man.  The  Bible  transfers  the  question  from 
discussion  to  life.  It  says  if  a  man  is  not  free 
he  ought  to  be;  for  the  whole  divine  purpose, 
process,  and  progress  of  the  world  is  for  the 
emancipation  of  man.  'Tor  the  earnest  ex- 
pectation of  the  creature  waiteth  for  the  mani- 
festation of  the  sons  of  God.  For  the  crea- 
ture was  made  subject  to  vanity,  not  willingly, 
but  by  reason  of  him  who  hath  subjected  the 
same  in  hope,  because  the  creature  itself  also 
shall  be  delivered  from  the  bondage  of  cor- 
ruption into  the  glorious  liberty  of  the  children 
of  God." 

Freedom,  then,  is  not  a  mere  thought,  but  an 
experience;  and  it  is  this  experience,  not  in  the 
world  at  large,  but  in  the  individual  soul,  that 
Paul  covers  by  the  words,  'Tor  the  law  of  the 
Spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus  hath  made  me  free 
from  the  law  of  sin  and  death."  It  is  an  ex- 
perience that  begins  with  a  struggle. 

The  word  ''struggle"  has  reached  scientific 
(12)  177 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

eminence  in  the  world's  history.  It  is  conceded 
that  the  earth  is  one  great  battlefield;  that  our 
life  has  been  largely  chiseled  and  shaped  in  the 
fierce  conflict  of  human  existence. 

Even  the  most  superficial  life  has  its  strug- 
gles. The  tramp,  so  lax  and  loose  and  care- 
free, has  his  struggles,  faint  and  feeble  though 
they  may  be.  The  devotee  of  society,  whose 
only  anxiety  is  to  be  recognized,  finds  even  this 
a  struggle,  an  exposure  to  the  slings  and  arrows 
of  pique  and  pride  and  poverty. 

Now,  in  all  this  struggle  of  life  there  is  a 
certain  divine  tendency.  The  struggle  is  car- 
ried in  from  the  surface  toward  the  center; 
from  the  battlefield  to  the  council  chamber; 
from  the  council  chamber  to  the  soul  of  one 
man. 

Jacob  begins  his  battle  with  Esau,  carries  it 
over  to  Laban,  and  finally  discovers  that  the 
only  battle  worthy  of  a  man  is  the  battle  with 
himself.  Paul  began  with  an  external  foe,  the 
Christian  Church,  but  found  the  conflict  thrown 
back  upon  the  battlefield  of  his  own  soul — in 
among  the  hidden  but  mighty  forces  of  life's 
armies  that  had  been  gathering  through  cen- 
turies of  ancestral  development.  Habits  and 
prejudices,  tempers  and  passions,  ideas  and 
178 


Life 

ideals,  ambitions  and  aspirations,  flesh  and 
spirit,  were  waging  an  unending  warfare 
across  the  field  of  Hfe. 

This  inner  struggle  seems  at  first,  like  the 
great  w^orld  struggle,  to  be  a  strange,  wild  med- 
ley of  discordant  forces.  But  Paul  finally  re- 
duces them  to  the  law  of  God  and  the  law  of 
sin;  the  law  of  life  and  the  law  of  death. 

Our  main  interest,  however,  centers  in  the 
battle  itself.  We  ask.  How  goes  the  battle? 
and  Paul  reports  it  against  him.  The  members 
are  warring  against  the  head.  Rebellious 
standards  are  lifted  here  and  there,  the  integrity 
of  life  is  assailed,  the  empire  of  the  soul  is  in  a 
state  of  anarchy.  And  all  this  means  that  the 
battle  is  being  carried  to  the  death;  that  this  is 
the  disintegration,  demoralization,  degenera- 
tion of  the  soul;  that  this  is  hell;  that  life  is 
being  lost,  dripping  away  as  a  piece  of  ice  melts 
in  the  sun;  returning  to  dust  as  a  stone  pul- 
verized in  the  elements ;  decomposing  and  dying 
like  a  flower  plucked  from  the  vital  stem.  The 
stars  are  fighting  against  him  in  their  course. 
Life's  wholeness  he  cannot  achieve.  He  de- 
clares, 'To  will  is  present  with  me;  but  how  to 
perform  that  which  is  good  I  find  not."  As 
though  a  chemist  with  all  the  elements  at  hand 

1/9 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

were  trying  to  make  an  acorn.  Mix  the  parts 
as  he  will  the  acorn  eludes  him.  The  spiritual 
band  of  life  he  cannot  find. 

Now  Paul  could  have  made  a  Pharisee,  for 
he  had  the  prescription;  or  a  Sadducee,  for  he 
knew  the  formula.  But  this  new  life  lies  deeper 
than  all  prescriptions  and  all  formulas,  or  even 
any  heroic  struggle  of  the  soul  of  man,  and  he 
breaks  down  with  the  cry,  ''O  wretched  man 
that  I  am !" — breaking  forth,  however,  the  next 
moment  into  the  exultant  cry,  "I  thank  God 
through  Jesus  Christ." 

What  lies  in  between  this  strange  despair 
and  w^onderful  elation,  this  death  and  life  ?  To 
answer  this  question  is  to  find  the  open  secret 
of  life. 

In  the  making  of  life,  or  anything  that  has 
life,  there  are  always  two  factors:  first,  the 
analysis  of  the  material,  the  taking  to  pieces, 
and  then  the  constructive  genius.  This  is  true 
whether  it  be  applied  to  a  church,  a  prayer 
meeting,  a  book,  a  picture,  or  a  human  life. 

God  does  not  convert  a  soul — make  a  new 
life — simply  by  law;  for  law  analyzes,  law 
takes  us  down  by  showing  us  up.  But  after 
the  law  has  reduced  us  to  nothing,  then  comes 
in  the  constructive  genius  of  God  and  makes 
1 80 


Life 

us  into  something.    After  the  death  of  the  old 
he  gives  us  the  hfe  of  the  new. 

What,  then,  is  this  constructive  genius  of 
God,  this  giving  Hfe  to  things?  The  answer 
is  more  simple  than  we  dream;  for  to  make  a 
thing  live  we  have  only  to  give  it  life;  and  if  zue 
make  it  live  we  must  give  it  our  life.  Men  have 
lives  to  give  in  different  directions :  this  one 
to  colors  till  they  speak ;  that  one  to  marble  till 
it  throbs;  and  this  again  to  thought  and  it 
breaks  into  singing.  If  you  want  a  church  to 
live,  to  live  again,  you  only  need  to  give  it  life. 
Put  in  the  life,  and,  behold,  it  is  alive.  This  is 
the  simple  fact  and  the  great  truth.  It  is  the 
truth  of  all  truth.  When  God  would  make  a 
world  live,  would  give  it  life,  he  simply  gave  it 
his  life. 

This  is  the  supreme  fact  about  God,  that  he 
is  a  spontaneous  God;  and  all  the  world  about 
us  of  life  and  power  is  throbbing  with  his  spon- 
taneity. He  is  a  generous  God  filling  the  world 
with  the  w^ealth  of  his  being;  a  giving  God  wdio 
spares  not  himself  in  the  giving.  And  this 
spontaneous,  generous,  giving  God  is  the  su- 
preme fact  in  life.  When,  in  Jesus  Christ,  he 
walked  through  the  haunts  of  our  humanity  it 
was  only  to  give,  and  give,  and  give  again. 
i8i 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

Can  we  then  in  such  a  presence  live  a  narrow, 
mean,  and  sordid  Hfe?  Is  there  not  a  certain 
divine  compulsion  upon  us — a  new  command- 
ment coming  not  from  without  but  breaking 
forth  from  our  own  heart?  This  something 
we  have  discovered  in  God :  is  it  not  the  noblest 
and  best  we  ever  recognized  in  men  ? — this  free, 
frank,  unstudied,  spontaneous  generosity  of 
God  ?  How  does  it  affect  us  when  we  find  it  in 
men?  If  your  child  obeys,  you  say  that  is 
right,  it  is  what  he  ought  to  do.  But  if  of  his 
own  free  will  he  works  out  some  generous,  self- 
denying,  self-sacrificing  deed  of  kindness,  it 
goes  to  your  heart  and  you  catch  him  in  your 
arms.  Paul  said,  ''Scarcely  for  a  righteous  man 
will  one  die :  yet  peradventure  for  a  good  man 
some  would  even  dare  to  die."  The  righteous 
man  whose  life  runs  like  a  clock  is  of  great 
service  to  the  community,  but  no  one  is  going 
to  die  for  him.  But  the  good  man,  the  gener- 
ous, self-denying,  self-sacrificing,  unstudied, 
spontaneous  soul,  he  will  find  men  to  die  for 
him.  In  his  presence  souls  will  leap  into  heroic 
grandeur.  He  is  the  leader.  And  what  the 
studied,  exacting  law  could  not  do  God  sent  his 
Son — freely,  spontaneously,  self-denying,  self- 
sacrificing — down  through  all  the  mystery  of 
182 


Life 

that  ministry,  down  into  life,  through  fate  and 
sorrow,  sin  and  death,  till  he  reached  this  man 
Paul  in  the  hell  of  his  despair.  And  the  very 
coming  awakened  something  in  the  man,  some 
slumbering  divinity  of  the  soul,  some  redeem- 
ing grace  of  being,  some  remnant  of  sponta- 
neous life,  something  that  had  never  been 
reached  before,  something  that  could  have  been 
reached  in  no  other  way.  And  the  divinity 
answers  back  to  the  divine,  grace  to  grace,  life 
to  life,  and  his  soul  breaks  heavenward  in  the 
cry,  "I  thank  God  through  Jesus  Christ." 

And  this  man's  life,  that  had  been  tortuously 
studied,  exacting,  and  specific  in  its  purpose, 
suddenly  becomes  spontaneous,  divinely  aban- 
doned, swinging  out  from  a  new  center  with  a 
new  and  an  ennobling  power.  We  find  him 
one  moment  with  a  pocket  full  of  documents, 
charts,  plans,  and  specifications  of  what  he 
shall  do  and  how  he  shall  do  it.  The  next 
moment  the  light  flashes  upon  him,  the  Christ 
is  before  him,  and  soul  rushes  forward  with 
the  cry,  ''Lord,  what  wilt  thou  have  me  to 
do?"  He  asks  for  no  specifications,  charts,  or 
plans.  He  is  ready  to  take  sealed  orders  from 
this  Christ,  to  ''go  where  he  wants  him  to  go, 
and  do  w^hat  he  wants  him  to  do."  He  has 
183 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

found  the  real  hero  of  the  soul,  and  that  is 
enough.  He  has  found  the  centrality  of  life. 
For  life  is  central;  indeed,  it  is  just  this  cen- 
trality that  makes  life  life  at  all.  All  the  strug- 
gle, dismemberment,  and  oncreeping  death  and 
yawning  hell  was  just  the  losing  of  the  soul's 
centrality,  her  unity,  her  integrity. 

The  plant  is  a  living  thing,  not  because  so 
many  elements  enter  into  it,  but  because  at  the 
heart  stands  some  central  force  commanding 
and  swinging  the  elements  with  the  rhythm  of 
the  universe.  Nor  is  life  life  because  so  many 
things  enter  into  it,  rich,  powerful,  and  choice, 
but  because  there  is  a  central  power  command- 
ing the  things  as  they  come,  shaping  them  there 
according  to  its  rhythmic  genius,  giving  to 
them  of  its  charm,  its  power,  its  glory  till  every 
element  swings  with  a  free  hand  from  the  cen- 
ter; till  duty  becomes  love,  and  sorrow  glory, 
and  death  life,  and  life  Christ,  and  Christ  God. 
The  value  of  things  depends  upon  the  divine 
centrality. 

Then  life  becomes  still  more  deeply  cen- 
tral. Christ  came  into  the  world  for  the 
Father.  He  came  in  the  Father's  name;  came 
to  do  the  Father's  business;  came  to  make 
everything  spell  one  word.  Fatherhood.  What 
184 


Life 

men  had  called  a  lily  he  made  spell  fatherhood. 
What  men  had  called  a  sparrow  he  made  spell 
fatherhood.  What  men  had  called  ''fisherman's 
luck"  he  made  spell  fatherhood.  He  aimed  to 
bring  all  the  discordant  forces  of  earth  under 
the  charm  of  that  word;  to  bring  all  into  one 
family;  to  restore  the  spiritual  bond  of  the 
world. 

And  what  he  does  in  the  world  he  also  does 
in  the  soul,  entering  it  in  the  name  of  the 
Father.  He  marshals  its  discordant  tempers 
and  traits,  inherited  and  acquired,  into  one 
family,  making  the  lion  and  the  lamb  lie  down 
together  in  the  soul.  He  does  not  convert  lion 
into  lamb,  nor  lamb  into  lion,  but  brings  all 
under  one  higher,  restraining  power  by  adding 
the  centripetal  force  that  gives  liberty. 

But  Christ  comes  into  the  soul  not  only  in  the 
Father's  name,  but  with  the  Father's  touch.  It 
is  the  old  creative  touch  of  God,  the  springtime 
spirit  that  makes  old  things  live  again;  that  re- 
deems that  wonderful  dream  of  life  through 
which  the  old  life  began  the  strange  struggle 
for  the  new. 

In  some  dark  corner  of  the  cellar  a  bulb 
awaits  the  spring  planting.  The  gardener  has 
forgotten  it.  But  the  bulb  by  instinct  feels  that 
185 


Unto  Heights  Heroic 

the  spring  sun  is  outside  and  it  is  making  a 
faint,  sickly  struggle  for  life.  It  is  just  a 
yearning,  pale  and  dreamlike,  till  suddenly  the 
gardener  bethinks  himself  and  hastens  to  bring 
the  bulb  and  plant  it  in  the  earth.  Then  the 
sun  begins  to  give  its  great  generous  self  to  the 
bulb.  It  gives,  and  gives,  and  gives,  till  the 
bulb  itself  begins  to  give — gives  back  color, 
leaf,  bud,  and  blossom. 

So  the  spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus  streams  in 
upon  the  soul  till  the  whole  being  is  quickened 
into  life  and  begins  to  give,  and  give,  and  give. 
And  v^hat  was  only  a  strange,  wild  struggle, 
a  fruitless  dream  of  life,  has  become  a  divine 
reality,  the  glorious  liberty  of  living. 

'Tell  me  not,  in  mournful  numbers, 
'Life  is  but  an  empty  dream !' 

For  the  soul  is  dead  that  slumbers, 
And  things  are  not  what  they  seem. 

"Life  is  real !    Life  is  earnest ! 

And  the  grave  is  not  its  goal ; 
Dust  thou  art,  to  dust  returnest, 

Was  not  spoken  of  the  soul." 
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